BBMP races to cover 24 lakh households for Caste Census in six days

Bengaluru: Over the next six days, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) aims to visit 24 lakh households as it is racing against time to complete the Caste Census, an initiative of the Karnataka government to provide internal reservations for the Scheduled Caste (SC) community in the state.

Although the survey began on May 5, the BBMP has covered only about six lakh households so far. The civic body is, however, confident of completing the exercise on time, citing improved efficiency after technical glitches were resolved and over 8,000 enumerators became familiar with the process.

On Monday, Justice HN Nagamohan Das, who is overseeing the initiative, reviewed the progress within the BBMP limits, which encompasses more than one-sixth of Karnataka’s population.

While the BBMP enumerators plan to visit every household in the city, the survey questionnaire is designed exclusively for members of the SC community. The enumerators — who visited areas such as Jayanagar and Koramangala — asked only a few questions to households belonging to general, other backward, or minority communities.

Focus on SC households

Senior BBMP officials clarified that no questions would be asked about non-SC families. In contrast, SC households will be asked an extensive set of questions to assess their socio-economic conditions. “The physical survey will continue for six days,” said Vikas Surolkar K, Special Commissioner, BBMP.

"We initially covered around 50,000 households per day when the survey began on May 5. It has since gained momentum, and we surveyed 1.5 lakh households on Monday alone. Our goal is to cover 4 lakh households each day over the next six days to reach all 1.3 crore residents in Bengaluru,” Surolkar added.

He explained that enumerators will approach both permanent residents and migrant populations. “No data will be collected from non-SC households. A mobile application has been developed with a structured set of questions exclusively for SC community members,” he said.

Going by the questionnaire, SC families will be asked for information, including their family tree, educational qualification, occupation, political representation, income, land ownership, vehicle ownership, and use of government schemes. The survey will also inquire whether the family has experienced social injustices, such as bonded labour, denial of access to public places, or social segregation.

A BBMP official added that special camps will be organised for five days, starting May 17, to accommodate residents who may have been missed during the door-to-door visits. These camps will be held at each assembly polling station. Additionally, people will have the option to submit their information online.

Nitin Seshadri, a resident of Koramangala, said an enumerator came to his home with a voter list, identifying the exercise as a part of a caste census and inquiring about his caste category. However, he felt the enumerator was not trained well and also noted that the initiative had not been widely publicised.