Experts panel submits review on caste survey to CM Revanth; Cabinet to discuss findings

Hyderabad: The Independent Expert Working Group (IEWG) constituted by the State government to study the Socio-Economic, Education, Employment, Political and Caste Survey (SEEEPC survey) submitted a comprehensive report on its findings to chief minister A Revanth Reddy.

The committee said it adopted a scientific methodology to find insights into the caste survey data, which will help the government in enabling social justice, social empowerment and social uplift.

“The findings of the survey will help the government in formulating policies and streamlining and bettering existing ones to better enable social justice, social empowerment and social uplift,” the committee said in a statement.

In a meeting held at the Dr MCR HRD Institute on Saturday, the report on the findings was submitted to the State government.

Caste survey and the analysis of the data

The Telangana caste survey, held in two phases, employing over 1,03,889 enumerators and supervisors, was the first of its kind in independent India, the government had said.

Initiated on November 6, 2024, the first phase of the survey was completed over 50 days.

Further, on popular demand, the second window of the comprehensive caste survey was allowed through four windows: direct enumeration at the GHMC offices, through a missed phone call, through a mobile app and through Mee Seva Centre enrolment.

“The staff worked with a scientific methodology and followed rigorous processes and subjected it to abundant cross-checking and real-time scrutiny to reach out to 96.9% households in the state,” the statement said.

Putting the committee together

After the findings of the comprehensive survey were tabled on the Floor of the Legislative Assembly, the government, on March 12, appointed a high-level independent committee of 11 members, headed by retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Sudarshan Reddy, to conduct an independent verification, analysis and comprehensive study of the data and its findings.

Data from survey

It was finalised from the survey that the State has over 3,55,50,759 households, with a total population of 3.55 crore. The State also found the following caste-wise breakup:

SCs (61,91,294 people - 17.42%)

STs (37,08,408 people - 10.43%)

BCs (2,00,37,668 people - 56.36%)

OCs (56,13,389 people - 15.79%)

Survey will be helpful, says BC commission chief

Speaking about the need for the report to go public, Telangana BC Commission chairman G Niranjan said, “The expert committee report on the caste survey is very useful. The process would be more transparent if it were made available to the public. The report will be useful for the validation of 42 per cent reservation in the courts.”

“The BC commission hopes that the report submitted to the government by the independent expert committee to study the caste census will reflect the status of BCs in the State,” he said.

We believe that this report will be helpful to the BC commission in taking very important decisions, he said and added that the caste-wise grading will indicate who should be given priority.