An enumerator fills in the details at a household during the socio-educational survey at Ganganagar in Bengaluru.
Credit: DH File Photo
Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes (KSCBC) is considering the option of summoning information about employees from private establishments to add “greater depth” to primary data collected during the Social & Educational Survey.
When the physical leg of the survey ended on October 31, 6.13 crore of the 6.85 crore estimated population of the state (89.48%) had been enumerated.
According to the Economic Survey of Karnataka 2024-25, 24.35 lakh people are employed in the organised sector, which includes both public sector and private jobs.
Of this, public sector employment accounts for 10.28 lakh, while 14.07 lakh jobs are in the private sector.
“We are thinking about obtaining information from private establishments, but no final decision has been taken yet,” KSCBC chairman Madhusudan R Naik told DH.
The secondary data, which the Commission is collecting, will also include caste-wise data of employees across Groups A, B, C and D from all government departments.
Backward Classes Welfare Department Secretary Tulasi Maddineni told DH that for the purpose of collecting secondary data, letters had been written to principal secretaries of all government departments seeking information about community-wise details of employees in their respective departments.
Experts feel secondary data is crucial to better assess the relative progress of each community, both in terms of their educational and employment opportunities.
While data from private companies will boost the quality of secondary data, there are apprehensions that many private companies may not cooperate.
Former Backward Classes Commission Chairman C S Dwarakanath recalled a similar initiative by him.
“When I was the KSCBC chairman, we had given a notice to a major software company, when they said they don’t hire based on caste and did not provide the information we sought.”
Dwarakanath added that he was subsequently “removed” as the KSCBC chairman due to pressure from certain major private and corporate establishments.
‘Powers of civil court’
According to section 10 of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes (Amendment) Act, 2014, whenever the commission is examining requests to include any class of citizens under backward classes or hearing complaints of “over inclusion”, it shall have all the powers of a civil court trying a suit.
In particular, the powers of the commission include requiring the discovery and production of any document, receiving evidence on affidavits, issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses and documents and so on.