Justice Das clarified that although these subcastes are not currently listed, they are still being counted in the survey.
Published May 16, 2025 | 6:51 PM ⚊ Updated May 16, 2025 | 6:51 PM
The online self-declaration through the mobile application, earlier planned for 21 May, will now begin on 19 May and continue till 28 May.
Synopsis: Four Scheduled Caste subcastes – Manasa, Kembatti, Mera, and Madiga Dasari – have been found missing from Karnataka’s official list of 101 recognised castes, according to the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission. Despite their absence from the list, these subcastes are being recorded under broader categories like Adi Karnataka or Adi Dravida during the ongoing state-wide SC survey.
As Karnataka’s Scheduled Caste (SC) survey continues across the state, the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission, tasked with carrying out the survey, has identified four SC subcastes missing from the official list of 101 recognised castes.
The missing subcastes are Manasa (Dakshina Kannada), Kembatti (Kodagu), Mera (Udupi), and Madiga Dasari (Raichur).
“Members of these four subcastes have written to the commission, requesting inclusion in the official list,” said Justice HN Nagamohan Das, speaking at a press conference at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Friday, 16 May.
“I, along with other members in the Social Welfare Department, have discussed it. The commission has powers to recommend to the state government to include these castes in the list in future. We can initiate it, but the state government has to take it forward by exploring legal possibilities.”
Justice Das clarified that although these subcastes are not currently listed, they are still being counted in the survey.
“They will come under the wing of either Adi Karnataka, Adi Dravida, or Adi Andhra. Therefore, our enumerators will mark them under one of these caste lists as people mention during the survey,” he said.
“For now, we know there are only four subcastes not on the 101-caste list. But there might be other castes which have not come to our notice.”
Furthermore, he said that the surveyors have noticed reluctance among people, particularly in rural areas, to disclose their subcaste.
“The majority of people are not revealing their subcaste. I have seen it myself when I went with enumerators last week,” he said.
“They mention Adi Karnataka, Adi Dravida, or Adi Andhra. But they do not tell their original caste name that falls under these three groups.”
According to the 2011 Census, Karnataka has around 44.5 lakh SC residents.
Justice Das outlined three reasons for this hesitation:
“First, families going back four generations since 1921 have forgotten their original caste name. Second, some know their caste but it is not included in the list of 101. Third, people may know their caste but they do not want to tell the enumerators.”
In response to appeals from Adivasi, Banjara, Lambani groups and district commissioners, the commission has extended the deadline for completing the door-to-door survey from 17 May to 25 May.
“We have completed 73 percent of the houses during the survey, but we need time to complete and achieve recording responses from a good number of the population,” said Rakesh Kumar, Commissioner, Social Welfare Department.
“People might not be available when we go to their doorstep because they might have left for work or even gone out of town for summer vacations. That is why we have extended the date for the doorstep survey so that the majority of them can be included in it.”
He added that special survey camps, originally scheduled for 19 to 21 May, will now run from 26 to 28 May.
The state government is also planning a dashboard for the survey application to enable public self-declaration. “By adding [their Aadhaar number and RD number], they can make self-declaration and get added to the population of SC caste in the state,” Kumar said.
The survey application, titled ‘Karnataka Sarkara Parishist/Moolajaati Samagra Samikshe’, currently has two access windows – one for enumerators and one for supervisors.
Enumerators can log in from 6.30 am to 8.30 pm and are authorised by district commissioners. Supervisors can review and verify 10 percent of completed households daily.
The online self-declaration through the mobile application, earlier planned for 21 May, will now begin on 19 May and continue till 28 May.
The Karnataka Government has directed the commission to submit a complete report on the survey within two months after the survey is completed.
Justice Das assured that the final report would be delivered promptly.
“We would not waste time further to put this empirical data in place, analyse it, and make recommendations to the government. It will happen soon,” he added.
The commission also flagged challenges in Bengaluru, where a shortage of teachers affected survey work.
“In the BBMP [Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike] limits, there were certain issues due to shortage of teachers to do Scheduled Caste survey. Therefore, we called for a meeting of zonal commissioners to review the progress of the survey,” Kumar said.
“During the meeting, zonal commissioners were instructed to include and train Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), Anganwadi, and unaided school teachers. Now the issue is solved and they are on the job to complete the survey.”
Meanwhile, a government school teacher died while on survey duty in Chatrasala village, Kalaburagi district, on Wednesday.
He has been identified as Nagashetti Amruthappa Basapalli (56).
“He died due to heart attack on the spot,” Kumar confirmed.
“We are collecting more details to see if he had health issues previously. We have also recommended the state government for a compensation of ₹15 lakhs.”
Chandrashekar Nuggalli, Secretary of the Karnataka Primary School Teachers Association, criticised the lack of support for teachers.
“We had discussed giving certain facilities and exceptions to teachers during this survey with Shalini Rajneesh, Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka, on 24 March,” he said.
“Nothing happened from the government side. Teachers have to step out for surveys even during this summer season. It gets difficult when they go for a door-to-door survey.”
Amid concerns about data security, Kumar said the information is securely stored.
“The data is stored safely in the Karnataka Data Centre. We have followed the international protocols according to which there are three places where this data is saved,” Kumar explained.
“A database in the Karnataka Data Centre, a mirror copy of the same data, and another copy in the remote data centre. Nobody can access this data as it is stored in encrypted form. Only Justice Das can access it with his password and login.”
As per the 2011 Census, Karnataka had 21.4 lakh SC households. The projected SC household population for 2025 is 25.7 lakh.
“As of 15 May 2025, we have surveyed 18.41 lakh SC households and 97.06 lakh non-SC households,” said Rakesh.
In Greater Bengaluru, the survey has covered 55,027 SC households and 1.32 lakh non-SC households.
Districts with the highest SC household coverage include:
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
