Caste survey to kick off in Karnataka from September 22, delayed in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: The Social and Educational survey (caste census) will start across the state as planned on Monday, except in Bengaluru (Greater Bengaluru Authority limits), where the process has been postponed by a few days for administrative reasons.

The survey is scheduled from September 22 to October 07. However, a delay in the start date in GBA limits may extend the survey beyond October 7 in Bengaluru. The survey may be delayed in Bengaluru by around 4-5 days.

However, Backward Classes Commission chairman Madhusudan R Naik clarified during a news conference that any such delay wouldn’t affect schools.

“In Bengaluru, there are not many teachers who are enumerators. We are also utilising people from other departments. Thus, even if the survey extends by 2-3 days, it won’t affect teaching.”

According to sources, there are around 25,000 enumerators in Bengaluru, of which 4,000-5,000 are teachers.

In the state, there are around 1.61 lakh blocs, and roughly 2 lakh teachers and other employees will be utilised for the tasks.

On September 8, the Backward Classes Commission held training for state master trainers. These trainers will train district-level trainers, who will in turn train the enumerators. According to GBA sources, training camps will be held Monday onwards for the trainers, who will further train the enumerators.

“We are going to train 25,000 enumerators and are waiting for the date from the commission to start the survey in Bengaluru,” said Munish Moudgil, special commissioner, revenue, GBA.

According to KA Dayananda, Member Secretary of the Backward Classes Commission, the delay in Bengaluru is due to the changes resulting from the formation of the GBA and the rearrangement of officers.

Even in previous surveys, including the one conducted by the Kantharaj Commission in 2015, and the recently concluded HN Nagamohan Das Commission survey of Scheduled Castes (SCs), the enumeration in Bengaluru was lukewarm, and lesser than the corresponding percentage in other districts.

Speaking about the earlier surveys, Dayananda said: “During the Nagamohan Das survey, a polling station was considered a block. One polling station in Bengaluru will have around 2,000 voters (around 400-500 houses). However, we have now considered 150 houses as a block. Also, we have introduced geo-tagging. Thus, supervisors can go and verify in those places."

Slot booking in Bengaluru

The member secretary pointed out that people across the state can register in three ways: online registration, door-to-door survey, and registering by calling enumerators through numbers given on stickers, which are pasted on all houses where enumeration hasn’t been carried out.

He said a fourth method will be used in Bengaluru. “In BBMP (GBA), they are planning slot booking. There will be an extra team in the control room. When slots are booked, they will go to the houses and collect them.”