135 of 242 castes in Telangana more backward than average backwardness index: Caste survey analysis

Hyderabad: An expert group that analysed the caste survey conducted by the Congress government in Telangana in 2024-25 has observed that 135 of the total 242 castes in the state are more backward than the average Comprehensive Backwardness Index.

The Independent Expert Working Group (IEWG), headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice B Sudershan Reddy, also said the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are "three times more backward" than General Castes.

Though the survey was conducted in 2024-25, the state government released the Telangana Socio-Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) survey-2024 in the public domain late on Wednesday night.

In March 2025, the state government constituted the nine-member IEWG to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the SEEEPC Survey 2024. The IEWG was mandated to verify, analyse, interpret and present the findings of SEEEPC 2024.

The group, in its key findings, also said Backward Classes are 2.7 times more backward than the General Caste.

The weighted average Comprehensive Backwardness Index (CBI) score for the entire state works out to 81, it said.

"Recall, higher the CBI score, the more backward the caste. 135 out of the total 242 castes have a CBI score higher than 81. These 135 castes account for 67 per cent of the total population," the group said.

Of the 135 castes, 69 are classified as Backward Classes, 41 are Scheduled Castes and 25 are Scheduled Tribes.

"Expectedly, all the 18 castes within the more privileged ‘General Caste’ category that account for 12 per cent of the total population fall well below the state CBI average," it said.

The main conceptual finding of the report is that “every backward caste is not equally backward”.

If 135 castes fall below the state average, the corollary is that there are 107 castes that are deemed less backward than the state average.

These 107 less backward castes include all the 18 castes in the General Caste category, 64 castes in the Backward Class category, 18 in Scheduled Caste and 7 in the Scheduled Tribe category.

These 107 castes account for 29 per cent of the total population, it added.