Inside Telangana Caste Census: Wary Respondents, Tired Surveyors & Privacy Fears

The Congress govt in Telangana launched the caste census to fulfill its poll promise of raising BC quota to 42%.

The Telangana Congress government, led by A Revanth Reddy, launched the caste survey to fulfill its election promise of raising BC reservations from 23% to 42%. On 4 February, two months after taking power, the Cabinet passed a resolution to initiate the survey.

(Photo: The Quint)

"The moment I took the name of [Telangana] Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, a woman inmate of the house asked me to get out," said K Varalaxmi, a health worker assigned the job of door-to-door enumeration for the Congress government's caste survey in Telangana, with components of social, economic, educational, employment, and political status of its population.

Holding a bunch of papers, Varalaxmi nervously walked back, fatigued and battling lunch-time hunger, in a bylane of King Kothi in Hyderabad. "I was just responding to their question on the survey that brought me to her house," she told The Quint.

Varalaxmi is among 80,000-odd enumerators, mostly teachers, health workers and other low-level government staff, who have hit the road throughout Telangana to carry out the 21-day survey that started on 9 November and will close on 30 November. Each enumerator will be paid Rs 10,000 for covering 150 houses.

K Varalaxmi, an enumerator of caste survey in Telangana, returning from an apartment complex at King Kothi in Hyderabad, after one of her visits to a house received a poor response.

(Photo: N Rahul)

'Respondents Suspicious, Turn Away Caste Surveyors'

Varalaxmi said she was handed over 10 questionnaires on 11 November, but she could complete only one of them till Wednesday. And that too without a proper response to the crucial question of the family's caste identity. The respondents had only shared the name of the head of the family. "They did not even disclose their Aadhaar numbers," she said.

Talking about her day, she added, "I leave home at 9.30 am and spend up to Rs 200 every day to commute to my sub-center for routine health duties and then go for the survey three kilometres away. I consume tea from roadside kiosks to beat hunger."

A sticker outside a house to indicate that the enumeration work will be carried out there.

(Photo: N Rahul)

"When I knock on the doors of houses, where stickers are pasted as indication of premises to be surveyed, the inmates look at me with suspicion and turn me away after probing questions."

The survey ran into rough weather after adverse publicity in social media about fraudsters raising head to dupe gullible public in the name of the current drive. A video with actors landing at a doorstep and asking a woman inmate to share bank details, OTP [one time password], and Aadhaar numbers also went viral. The message of the clip was to be vigilant against such 'enumerators' and alert police immediately. A couple of senior police officers also sounded caution to public in the media to be vigilant.

What is the Survey About?

Ahead of the Assembly elections in Telangana in November 2023, the Congress had, by a 'BC declaration' at a public meeting in Kamareddy, had promised to increase political reservation for backward classes (BCs) from 23 percent to 42 percent. The meeting was attended by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The caste survey was a sequel to the Congress's stand on equitable social justice as decided at its 'chintan shivir' in Rajasthan's Udaipur in 2022. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had also voiced the demand several times later.

But the purpose in Telangana was apparently to capture the BCs vote bank which had drifted away from the party over decades.

There are about 130 caste groups among BCs in Telangana, constituting more than 50 percent of population. Unlike the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), they lacked a homogeneous character.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had consolidated the gains of Congress supporters thronging his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) by launching several welfare programmes for the section in the united state.

Resolution to Conduct Caste Census on 4 Feb, Rs 150 Cr Allocated

After the bifurcation of the state in 2004, the BJP attracted the BCs and even promised the party's chief ministerial candidate from the section. But it was the K Chandrasekar Rao-led Telangana Rashtra Samiti (now Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS)) which tried to strike an emotional chord with BCs by holding meetings of caste groups before elections. Rao also announced the 'BC Bandhu' scheme on the lines of 'Dalit Bandhu,' an assistance programme with a grant of Rs 10 lakh to SCs for setting up business entrepreneurships.

Hence, the survey was aimed at upward revision of reservations for BCs in urban and rural local bodies.

Backward Classes Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar (holding a questionnaire in hand) participated in enumeration as part of caste survey at a house in Banjara Hills of Hyderabad on Thursday. Seated to his left are enumerators and at right is Hyderabad Mayor Gadwal Vijayalaxmi. The respondents are sitting across the table.

(Photo: Arranged by N Rahul)

On 4 February, two months after the Congress was elected to power, the state Cabinet decided to adopt a resolution in the Assembly to take up the caste survey. The resolution was passed in the Assembly on 16 February. It read,

"The House resolves to take up a comprehensive door-to-door household survey ( socio, economic, educational, employment, political and caste survey of entire Telangana) so as to plan and implement various socio, economic, educational, employment and political opportunities for amelioration of socially and educationally backward classes of citizens and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under various clauses of Constitution."

An amount of Rs 150 crore was also allocated with a promise that funds were not an issue.

What Caused the Delay in Conducting the Caste Census?

However, the survey did not take off in the last eight months due to the Lok Sabha elections and court cases.

On a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by R Krishnaiah, former Rajya Sabha member and leading figure of struggles by BC organisations since the Mandal Commission imbroglio, the Telangana High Court directed the state government to constitute a dedicated commission to monitor the survey.

The Supreme Court had also given a ruling in 2010 to follow triple tests – proportionate political reservation based on population, dedicated commission, and vertical reservations for SCs, STs and BCs taken together not exceeding 50 percent.

Since it wasn't as much of an issue with the SCs and STs because they were respectively entitled to 15 percent and 6 percent reservation constitutionally, fixing reservations for BCs was always a challenge for any government.

The Bihar government arrived at total reservations for SCs, STs, and BCs at 63 percent but it was struck down by the Patna High Court – and the judgment was later upheld by the Supreme Court. The state government had undertaken the painstaking job for five months at a cost of Rs 500 crore, sources said.

Krishnaiah told The Quint there were a number of court cases challenging reservations in local bodies in the absence of scientific data about the population of BCs. In compliance with the court order, the government appointed a dedicated commission headed by retired IAS officer B Venkateswara Rao last week.

Problems with the Questionnaire 

The commission was mandated to submit the entire data on population-based reservations to the court by 9 December.

The deadline was synchronised with the need to conduct elections to rural local bodies at least by coming January. The term of the bodies expired in January this year. In the absence of elected bodies, the local bodies were run by special officers, but they were denied Finance Commission funds, which brought maintenance and developmental activity in rural areas to a halt.

The need for a dedicated commission when every state had its own BC Commission was often stressed in political circles but the chairman of the present commission in Telangana, G Niranjan, said he had informed the chief minister at a meeting on 9 October that the four-member panel did not have its own manpower to take up such a gigantic task. So, it was entrusted to the planning department of the government under the supervision of the commission. 

The government prepared an eight-page questionnaire with 65 questions, which has seemingly become a huge burden for enumerators, as it takes 30-40 minutes to finish with each respondent.

The questionnaire includes personal data collection of families like their properties, bank account details, ownership of vehicles, smart phones, refrigerator, TV, cattle and plinth area of their houses. The responses are to be noted by enumerators from options given in a templated answer book available with them.

The need to design the questionnaire tailor-made for respondents was stressed by Rahul Gandhi at a Congress meeting in Hyderabad on 5 November. He had insisted that the questions must reflect the aspirations of poor, SCs, STs and OBCs.

"Everybody accepts there is caste discrimination in the country. So, let us find out its extent. Let us do an X-ray to measure its extent. And then find out how is wealth distributed in the country," Gandhi had said.

"The BJP and [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi say I am dividing the country by raising the issue. Why is the prime minister not challenging that there is no caste system in the country?" he asked.

He also said the only people who resisted caste census were those who did not want truth to come out because "they are beneficiaries of caste discrimination".

Welcoming the survey, a former chairman of state BC Commission, V Krishna Mohan Rao, said the government should have put the questionnaire in public domain to seek its opinion in tune with Rahul Gandhi's demand. He noted that the design of the questionnaire was such that it "failed to protect the right to privacy and liberty of people and, thereby, violated Personal Data Protection Act".

'Well-to-do, Non-Telugu Speaking Families Don't Respond to Caste Survey'

Recounting the travails of survey, a teacher-enumerator AV Rama Kumari said it was "a tough job" as she's currently spending her mornings teaching and carrying out the survey post-lunch as mandated by government. She revealed, 

"Families of forward castes do not reveal their caste identity fearing they might be targeted for exclusion of government programmes as this was meant to be for lower castes. Many people also did not disclose their income nor phone numbers."

Rama Kumari said the waiting time after pressing the calling bell on doors stressed her out. "Some say it is a futile exercise. And the non-Telugu speaking people refuse to respond due to language barrier as the questionnaire is in Telugu," she added.

Another enumerator Parveen Begum, a health worker who was going around a slum behind Old MLAs Quarters at Hyderguda, said she got good response in localities with a significant poor population because they expected benefits from government. 

Familiar with most of the households since she was a health worker in the area, Parveen ticked away in a jiffy the queries related to availability of cooking gas connection, refrigerator, two wheelers, food security cards, air-conditioner, internet, personal computer and others in the questionnaire. 

Enumeration at the house of a plumber by health worker Parveen Begum at a slum behind Old MLAs Quarters in Hyderabad. The house accommodates five families of close relatives.

(Photo: N Rahul)

However, "I was met with adverse reaction when I went to houses of well-to-do people. I was stopped from asking any questions," she added.