New Delhi, May 15 -- The recent Cabinet decision to include caste as a category in India's upcoming population census is an important milestone in the quest for social justice. But it is also relevant for multiple other reasons. While the push for a caste census, or inclusion of caste in the national headcount, gathered pace on the back of a spirited campaign run by the opposition Congress party and its leader, a near consensus on its necessity has always existed among political parties.

Still, there has never been a serious attempt to carry out the exercise. It was this frustration that led states to conduct their own caste counts. While these are called 'surveys' for legal reasons, for all practical purposes and statistically, the cast...