BHUBANESWAR: AMID the growing demand for a caste-based census in the country, the Odisha government has set upon conducting its own survey of social and educational conditions of people belonging to backward classes in the state. It is targeting to complete the exercise by July 12. Odisha will be the second state after Bihar to collect data on the socio-economic conditions of people from backward classes. Earlier, it was decided that the survey will be held in May and June 2021 after the state government constituted the Odisha State Commission for Backward Classes (OSCBC) in February, 2020, but it had to be postponed due to the second wave of Covid-19. OSCBC had identified 209 communities in Odisha as socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC).
The number has now increased to 231 after the state cabinet recently approved inclusion of 22 more castes in the state OBC list. In a letter to all collectors and municipal commissioners of the state, member secretary of the OSCBC Vir Vikram Yadav said the Commission has issued an exhaustive guideline and timeline to all the district collectors and municipal commissioners in this regard on February 24. The collectors and municipal commissioners have been asked to complete and send the district survey management plan to the Commission by the first week of March. The survey will be undertaken in all the 314 blocks, 114 municipalities and municipal corporations in the state. The survey assumes significance as OBCs comprise nearly 54 per cent population of the state. Official sources maintained that survey will help to make effective policies for backward classes to ensure their socioeconomic developmen