🔆A caste census is not a silver bullet for social justice ✅The Government of India has proposed to include caste enumeration in the upcoming decennial Census, reigniting debates on the efficacy, intent, and utility of caste-based data in policymaking for social justice and welfare distribution. 📍Role and Merits of Caste Census ✅Empirical Basis for Policy ✅Intra-OBC Stratification ✅Institutionalising Enumeration 📍Limitations and Institutional Concerns ✅Misplaced Policy Pivot ✅Overburdening the Census Machinery ✅Historical Precedent of Policy without Data :Reforms like Mandal recommendations and EWS reservations were executed without exhaustive caste-based datasets, driven more by political resolve. ✅To elevate Census data as a precondition for social and economic justice or as the pivot for policymaking is a flawed and dangerous misreading of its purpose #gs2 #polity_governance