Officials announced that teachers will be minimally involved in the census, prioritising MRO, MDO, MPO, Asha, and Anganwadi workers. Teachers will only be recruited if there's a staffing shortage, ensuring no disruption to school operations
Published Oct 31, 2024 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 31, 2024 | 7:07 PM
Telangana state to deploy 80,000 employees for caste census beginning on 6 November(TelanganaCMO/X)
Telangana government has set an ambitious target for completing the caste census in just a span of three weeks, beginning 6 November. With this, Revanth Reddy’s government is set to implement Congress’ national vision of caste census – a tool for social justice.
As the Backward Classes Commission does not have the necessary wherewithal to conduct the caste census in Telangana, the work has been entrusted to the Planning Department. The Commission estimated that it would cost ₹150 crore to conduct the survey.
The government intends to utilise the services of at least 80,000 employees including teachers to complete the survey to know which caste has how much population, particularly among the Backward Classes.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, speaking at the preparatory meeting on the Telangana caste census at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday, 30 October, said: “The caste census is like a mega health checkup camp for all castes. The departments concerned have to complete the work by the end of this month.”
The officials say that they would be using teachers sparingly for doing the census. “We are deploying the staff of MROs, MDOs, MPOs, Asha and Anganwadi workers. The least preference is being given to teachers. They will be asked to do the survey only if we have a shortage of staff. We do not want to cause any dislocation to teaching in schools,” one official told South First.
The officials in other districts are wondering whether they should ask teachers to do the census work after school hours. They say that no clear instructions had been issued. At the moment they are preparing teachers to be ready to do the census, at short notice, one official said.
“We may ask the teachers to survey three to four families after school hours.” He hoped that the government might spare teachers. “We are already giving training to the government staff. If the government wanted to deploy teachers, it would have given instructions by now so that teachers could be included in training camps,” he said.
The government wants to implement BC reservations in the local body elections that are due immediately after the completion of the caste census. The government is planning to implement reservations for the BCs based on the survey in the local bodies. The survey will be done incorporating the methods adopted in similar surveys done in Bihar and Karnataka.
In a related development, the Telangana High Court on Wednesday, 30 October, asked the state government to constitute a separate commission for the implementation of the reservations for the BCs in local body elections.
The court gave the direction in a petition filed by former Rajya Sabha member and BC leader R Krishnaiah for a direction to this effect. He argued that precious time would be lost if the courts junk the BC Commission’s study on the implementation of reservations. He also said that entrusting the word to the BC Commission to do the study would negate the rulings of the Supreme Court in the past.
After the preparatory meeting on commencing the caste census at Gandhi Bhavan, BC welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar said that the caste census will begin on 6 November and will end by 30 November. “The Congress is redeeming its promise to the BCs at the time of the last elections. The Congress party is planning to invite party supremo Rahul Gandhi to kick off the census on 5 November,” he said
The state government has compiled a long list of questions – about 50 – to elicit answers from each family in the state. They include whether they were recipients of welfare schemes, what their means of living are, their annual income and so on.
According to one official, the households would be furnished with forms in which they would have to fill in their answers to the questions. Though mainly the census is for all castes, the focus would be on the enumeration of castes and sub-castes among the BCs.
The hurry to complete the caste census is on account of the High Court’s direction in September that the exercise should be within three months and the BC Commission submit its report to the state government.
But the government remained inactive for a very long time on this count and only on 9 October, it constituted a five-member BC Commission headed by G Niranjan, which included the commissioner of BC Welfare as member secretary.
The terms and conditions of the BC commission include studying the living conditions, the difficulties under which they work, and their occupations.
The commission will make recommendations as to the social provisions which may be made by the government for their advancement and for the promotion of their educational and economic interests to assess their livelihood based on their traditional occupation, the present status and alternative occupations, if any, and the scope for its modernisation.
The commission will also endeavour to obtain information from the state and central government departments, agencies, and institutions on the percentage of BC members employed in government, quasi-government and private sectors.
The commission is expected to submit a report to the government based on the information collected during the field studies duly recommending the steps taken to remove the impediments for overall improvement of the socio-economic and educational conditions. It will also recommend enhancement of reservations to them if necessary in admissions to educational institutions in the state and for appointments to the public services.
(Edited by Ananya Rao)
