Chief Minister Siddaramaiah government’s ambitious Socio-Economic and Educational survey, also known as the caste survey, has run into rough weather even before enumerators start knocking on your doors from Monday to gather details.
The Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission appears confident in completing the task assigned to it. But controversies and questions surrounding the survey raise doubts about the acceptability of the outcome of the massive Rs 420 crore exercise, especially given the manner in which the earlier survey report, which cost the exchequer over Rs 160 crore, was junked.
In 15 days, from September 22 to October 7, the survey aims to cover around 7 crore people in approximately 2 crore households across Karnataka. As many as 1.75 lakh enumerators would use a detailed questionnaire consisting of 60 questions to get social, economic, educational and caste details. Each enumerator would cover around 120 households that would be geo-tagged using the electricity meter number and assigned a Unique Household ID (UHID).
As an initial step, stickers with the unique identity numbers assigned to households have been pasted outside the houses. The government has also made it clear that households without an electricity connection will also be covered.
While the government claims that the purpose of the survey is to gather data on the socio-economic status to formulate welfare programmes, the survey has sparked debates over the addition of new castes, need for such a survey when the Union Government is including caste enumeration in the upcoming census and the possibility of completing the task of gathering such enormous information in just 15 days.
In the past few weeks, caste assertion has come to the fore like never before. Political, religious and community leaders of various communities are holding meetings to formulate their own strategies, as the outcome of the survey could have far-reaching implications for their communities.
The Veerashaiva-Lingayat leaders and heads of prominent mutts of the community held ‘Ekata Samavesha’, a convention for unity in Hubballi on Friday, and around the same time, Christian community leaders met in Bengaluru. Prominent Vokkaliga community leaders, including elected representatives, met under the leadership of Nirmalanandanatha Swamiji of Adichunchanagiri Mutt in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha Secretary General and Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre suggested that during the survey, the community members should mention Veerashaiva-Lingayat as religion and Lingayat or Veerashaiva as caste, along with their sub-caste.
This would help revive the demand for a separate religion for Veerashaiva Lingayats. However, prominent BJP leaders from the community have asked members of the community to mention Hindu in the religion column and Veerashaiva-Lingayat as a caste.
While that confusion is likely to persist in one of the dominant communities, what has raised the hackles is the commission reportedly listing castes such as Vokkaliga-Christian, Kuruba-Christian, Ediga-Christian, Madivala-Christian and Brahmin-Christian.
The government claims that those converted to Christianity should identify as Christian. If that is the case, what is the purpose of listing such dual identities in the survey? Officials justify that it was done as many people had mentioned dual castes during the last survey. They also make it clear that such a list has no legal sanctity as it is not a caste list. It is only internal information given to enumerators to record the details given by the people.
However, many, including Akhila Bharatha Brahmin Maha Sangha state president GR Pradeep, question the logic. The government must explain the reason for doing so, or else this exercise will go waste, and it gives rise to suspicion that the government is indirectly encouraging people to convert, says Pradeep, adding there is no such thing as ‘Brahmin-Christian’. They hope that the survey would reflect the real numbers of the community, which, according to them, is around 50 lakh, but was mentioned as just 14 lakh in the Jayaprakash Hegde Committee report that was based on the survey done by the H Kantharaju Commission.
Two dominant communities, Lingayat and Vokkaliga, had also opposed that report, forcing the Congress government to go for a new survey.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s political detractors see the ongoing exercise as his attempt to conform to the Congress high command’s stand on the caste census, as well as to further consolidate his position within the party, especially around the time when the Congress government completes two-and-a-half years of its tenure in November this year.
Interestingly, the survey report is expected to be given to the government in December. Once the survey numbers are out, officially or otherwise, they could bolster Siddaramaiah’s position within the party. His supporters project him as the tallest leader of backward classes and minorities.
Although Siddaramaiah asserts that he would continue to be at the helm of affairs for a full five-year tenure, a section of Congress leaders, especially Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s followers, often mention an agreement on power-sharing between the two top leaders. However, the party has neither accepted nor denied the existence of such an agreement.
Be that as it may, the State Government should make an all-out attempt to clear confusion surrounding the survey to ensure a smooth start from Monday. Politics can wait. Now the focus should be on ensuring that everyone, including political parties, leaders of various communities, and more importantly, people, have trust in the survey and make it a fruitful exercise. And not allow it to become yet another political venture.