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After Bihar, Andhra Pradesh begins caste survey, over 16 mn to be covered in 10 days
Arrangements in place to ensure that data is collected in a door-to-door survey with the help of over three lakh village and ward secretariat staff.
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday kickstarted the 10-day long exercise of “caste survey” aimed at creating a comprehensive caste-based database of people, aiming to ensure that the benefits of various welfare schemes initiated by it would reach targetted beneficiaries.
The commencement of the caste survey coincides with the unveiling of the 125-foot statue of Dr B R Ambedkar, christened as “Statue of Social Justice” at Vijayawada by YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to seemingly influence the Dalit community ahead of the assembly election in the state.
State backward classes welfare and information and public relations minister Ch Srinivasa Venugopala Krishna told reporters at Rajahmundry on Thursday evening that Andhra Pradesh would be the second state in the country after Bihar to take up a comprehensive caste survey.
“It would help the state government identify the most backward classes so as to tailor the welfare schemes to reach the targeted beneficiaries,” Krishna said.
Also Read: Andhra Pradesh government to complete caste survey by February 15
The minister said arrangements have been made to ensure that data is collected accurately through a door-to-door survey with the help of over three lakh village and ward secretariat staff, and volunteers.
State principal secretary (planning) M Girija Shankar said these village and ward secretariat employees and volunteers would cover, in all, 12.30 million families consisting of 3.56 crore population in rural areas and 4.44 million families with nearly 1.3 crore population in urban areas between January 19 and 28. For those not surveyed during the first phase, a second round would be conducted from January 29 to February 2.
A mobile application has been created to collect details of individuals instantaneously during the visit of village and ward secretariat staffers to the households. As many as 726 castes and communities have been listed in the mobile application, which is expected to help the staffers complete the exercise quickly.
Girija Shankar said the survey would last about 5-10 minutes and will be carried out in every village for the next 10 days. Survey officials have been asked to ensure there are no duplications and no one is left out of the exercise. However, no caste certificate will be issued based on the exercise, he added.
Until February 15, the village and ward secretariat department will carry out works related to reconciliation and data validation/verification and finalisation of data. “The final caste census report will be prepared at the gram ward secretariat level by February 15,” he said.
The caste survey, apart from identifying the caste of the people, would also capture details of socio-economic, educational, and employment of the people, the official added.
