Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s ‘ambitious’ caste census began across the state on Saturday. The census has been named ‘Socio-economic and Educational’ census of the people in Karnataka. During the census, enumerators will be asking 55 questions to the household and not all questions are mandatory to be answered. The census will end on April 30.
Question one to 31 pertain personal information, and the rest is information about the family. While people from Scheduled Castes will be coded B, Scheduled Tribes will be coded C while others will be coded A. The last such census was held way back in 1931.
The first caste census, which will be conducted across the State over the next 20 days, got underway on Saturday in Koramangala.
Bengaluru District incharge Minister and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy flagged off the census in Koramangala 5th Block in the presence of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner M Lakshminarayana, Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission Chairman H Kantharaj, BBMP Opposition Leader Manjunath Reddy, Corporators in BTM Assembly – Kokila Radhakrishna, Saraswathamma, Murugesh Modaliyar, Mahesh Babu, Manjunath, Saroja Veerappa, Shankar, Sampath, BBMP officials and residents from various blocks of Koramangala.
The Minister along with enumerators visited a house in Koramangala 5th block and collected information.
Earlier at the BBMP premises, a grand function was held to inaugurate this census. There the function began with the lighting of the lamp by H Kantharaj, Chairman of Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes followed by the Minister Ramalinga Reddy, BBMP Commissioner Lakshminarayana and other dignitaries.
Soon after lighting the lamp, Kantharaj said that the census will be conducted from April 11 to 30. We want to study the economic status of 1.25 crore households in the State and publish the final report by June this year. “The people will have to provide complete and correct details even thought not all 55 questions are mandatory. This will help in better implementation of government schemes and urged the people to participate in the census by considering it as a duty”, he said.
Enumerators in their 20-day data collection drive will have to meet 120 to 150 households and deposit the data sheets, he said.
Of the 55 questions, 1 to 31 will be related to personal information and the rest is about the family. “People belonging to the Scheduled Castes will be coded as ‘B’ and Scheduled Tribes will be coded as ‘C’. The rest of the castes will be coded as ‘A’. Any sub-caste has to be mentioned with the codes assigned for them under each division,” he said.
Minister Reddy who presided said that the census findings will help us analyse the socio-economic condition of each caste. No other State in the country has attempted such a census. He urged the residents to cooperate when the enumerators visit their house and provide the relevant details. Of the 198 wards in the city, it has been divided into 18000 census blocks and about 18,000 enumerators have been deployed for this purpose, he added.
BBMP Commissioner Lakshminarayana said “It plays a significant role in the preparing schemes for the backward communities and bring them to the mainstream of society.” “Apart from the enumerators, as many as 3,000 supervisors will be overseeing this drive, besides there will be 165 master trainers and 198 addiional charge officers, he said.“The enumerators will spend 30 to 45 minutes at each household, collecting information on caste, size of each family, job status of its members and their education and economic status”, he added.
