After Karnataka, Telangana Gets Ready For Caste Census

Hyderabad:

Telangana will become the second Congress-ruled state after Karnataka to undertake caste census – an exercise that would continue from November 6 to November 30. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has also ordered the constitution of a Backwards Castes commission following the orders of the High Court, which wanted the new commission to ensure quota for them in the local bodies’ polls.

On November 5, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will be in Telangana to attend a programme on caste census. Mr Gandhi is expected to meet associations, student organisations and intellectuals to take their views on the matter.

The previous panel of backwards castes was based on a 1993 law and had mandate only to gather data on education and employment quota. This time, the census will gather socioeconomic profile of all castes, sources said.

Sources said 48,000 teachers will be deployed for the survey, for which primary schools will work only half-day this month.

They will go from house-to-house and conduct survey to collect data. This will encompass social, education, employment, economic, and political data. The government staff will place stickers on doors. There will be 85,000 enumerators and observers.

Caste census was one of the key election related promises made by the Congress.

At the time, Mr Reddy, who was leading the Congress campaign, had said in an open letter that only a caste census would ensure justice for the backward classes.