Stage set for launch of caste census in Telangana from Wednesday

The 56 questions include health hazards from caste-based occupation, annual income, welfare schemes received, details of moveable and immovable property

The stage is all set for the launch of the intensive door-to-door survey to assess the social, economic, educational, caste and political status of every household across Telangana on Wednesday (November 6, 2024).

Data collection spread over three weeks

The State government has decided to collect data over the next three weeks followed by another three weeks for preparation of explanatory notes and revisits to missing houses among others. The households will be given a questionnaire asking about the social status primarily, as well as economic parameters like employment and occupations.

Details that people will be asked for includes

Basic details including name and address
Religion, caste
Marital status 
Aadhaar card number (optional)

The exercise has been contemplated following the assertion of senior Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi that caste census will be the foundation for policy making and the numbers of every community must be enlisted. Mr. Gandhi has been demanding that the government take steps to revise the 50% cap on reservations to ensure that representation in government and education is fair for all communities.

Details about source of income

Details of job
Self-employment details
Annual income 
Annual turnover in case of business/real estate /industrialist
Do you pay income tax?
Do you hold a bank account?

80,000 enumerators

The government has decided to deploy over 80,000 enumerators, majority of them teachers and another 10,000 supervisors for covering all households and preparing a database of the families residing in the State. The move to utilise services of teachers for the census drew flak from the Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) which criticised the government on the ground that it was in violation of the Right to Education Act.

Details that will be collected include

If daily wage labor, the unorganized sector respondent works in
Caste-based occupation
Health hazard because of the caste-based occupation 

56 questions

The government has sanctioned ₹150 crore for conducting the survey spread over a period of eight weeks with an intention of providing representation for the backward classes in the local body elections in line with their population. According to the questionnaire, which includes 56 questions, prepared for the survey, details that will be collected include about the annual income of the family, whether they are income tax payers, hold lands and whether members of the family of the respondents migrated to other State or other countries.

Property details that would be asked for

Do you hold land?
What form of land do you hold (patta land/assigned land/ROFR)
Extent of the land
If tenant, details of the land
Details of immovable property 
Details of movable property

Scope of the database

The database, according to officials, will be crucial for assessing the reach of various welfare and development schemes in implementation to the last mile. It will also be crucial in extending benefits under various schemes for families that hitherto remained uncovered.

Details that will be collected include

Benefits received from reservation, if any, (Education and employment)
Welfare schemes benefits received in the past five years
Caste certificate if the respondent belongs to SC/ST/BC/EWS
If the respondent is from one of the Denotified Tribes

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy participated in a seminar on the modalities that should be adopted for effective outcome of the survey on Tuesday (November 5, 2024). The seminar was attended by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi who has been repeatedly stressing the need for conducting a caste survey so that benefits reached the deserving sections.

Published - November 05, 2024 06:11 pm IST