Context: Activists and intellectuals from the tribal community demand a separate column titled ‘Adivasi/Tribal faiths’ (a separate religion code ‘Sarna’) in Census for identifying their religion.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Census. Mains: Demand for a separate column titled ‘Adivasi/ST faiths’ in Census.
About Census of India:
- Census is the largest administrative exercise to collect demographic, social, and economic data of the country’s population. It has been conducted every ten years since 1881.
- Conducted by: Office of the Registrar General and the Census Commissioner, under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- Conducted under the legal framework of the Census Act, 1948. It plays a crucial role in policy planning, governance, and resource distribution.
- The next Census, originally scheduled for 2021, has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, preparations are now underway for the Census in 2026-27.
Issue related to misidentification of STs in Census:
Despite its importance and scale, the Census process has faced long-standing issues and criticisms. These include the lack of caste-based enumeration beyond SC/ST and exclusion of indigenous tribal religions from religious categorisation.
- Census includes the religious demography of India through the registration of a person’s religious beliefs. The religions mentioned are Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism.
- For those with other beliefs, there is a general column titled ‘Other Religious Persuasion’ (ORP). There is no column for the beliefs of STs.
- The restriction in the Census to six religions or the ambiguous ORP category leads to misidentification. This misidentification is reflected in the 2011 Census data:
- The ST population was counted as 10.43 crore (8.6% of the then population of 120 crore).
- However, only 0.66% of the population (or 79 lakh people) registered themselves under the ORP column in the 2011 Census, which means that the large majority of ST communities could not register their religious or spiritual identity and had to misidentify with other religions. This omission is unconstitutional on several counts.
Constitutional Implications of Exclusion:
- Violation of Article 25, 26, 29: These articles guarantee freedom of conscience and the right to manage religious affairs. By clubbing tribal religions under the ambiguous “Other Religious Persuasion (ORP)” or assimilating them under Hinduism, the state denies STs the dignity of recognition. Article 29(1): Protects the right of any section of citizens to conserve its distinct language, script or culture. Exclusion from the Census contradicts this cultural right.
- Undermines Fifth & Sixth Schedules: These schedules aim to protect tribal customs, traditions, and self-governance. Failure to officially acknowledge their spiritual traditions weakens the basis of their legal autonomy.
- Breach of Constitutional Morality: The Constitution mandates respect for diversity. Forced religious misclassification violates the spirit of inclusivity and fraternity enshrined in the Preamble.
- Other implications
- Leads to Cultivate Invisibility. Leads to loss of distinct tribal identity over time.
- Tribal students, especially in government/EMRS schools, are taught dominant religious content, leading to alienation from their own traditions.
- Leads to under-representation in cultural schemes and budgets.
- Affects the implementation of PESA, Forest Rights Act, and Minority-focused schemes.
In November 2020, the Jharkhand Assembly unanimously passed a resolution demanding a separate religious code for Sarna religion in the 2021 Census, but the Centre did not respond.
This is perceived by many tribal communities as centralisation and homogenisation of the ‘one nation, one culture’. Adivasis have been pushing back against new forms and methods of assimilation. The demand for recognition of their faiths in the Census is one such form of resistance.