Odisha kicks off survey into conditions of backward classes

The information will be collected at survey centres designated by the OSCBC, or online. The heads of families belonging to the backward classes can share their details at these survey centres, which have been set up in nearly every ward in 314 blocks in rural areas, and at 114 civic bodies in urban areas.

This method is unlike the one used in the ongoing caste census in Bihar, where enumerators go door-to-door to collect household information.

Justice Raghunath Biswal, chairperson of the OSCBC, said the main survey would continue until May 20, following which a special drive would be conducted until May 27 to make sure that no eligible household has been left out of the survey process.

“There will also be scope of survey after May 27, in case any eligible household has been left out. It will take around five months to publish the outcome of the findings,” Biswal told reporters here.

Odisha has 208 communities designated as backward classes. The state government has also recently promulgated an ordinance to include 22 more castes/communities, which have already been notified as Other Backward Classes (OBCs) by the Centre, in its list of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs).

Although no formal survey on this has been done previously, sources said backward classes comprise around 54% of the state’s total population.

The exercise comes a year ahead of Assembly elections in the state, as well as the general election.

With the BJP attempting to garner the support of OBCs across the country, including in Odisha – Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, one of the prominent BJP faces from Odisha, belongs to the OBC community, as does the BJP’s state unit president Manmohan Sama – it has been claimed that the current survey is the BJD government’s attempt to counter this.

The BJP and the Congress have heavily criticised the decision to conduct the survey a year before elections, alleging that it is being done in order to get political mileage with the backward classes.

Odisha, along with Bihar and Maharashtra, had previously requested the Centre to conduct a caste census. Having not received a positive response, the Naveen Patnaik-led state government decided to conduct the backward classes survey through the OSCBC.

State SC/ST Development and Backward Classes Welfare Minister Jagannath Saraka said collecting accurate data on socio-educational conditions of the backward communities was “crucial for effective policy formulation”.

The SEBCs currently have 11.25% reservation in government jobs in Odisha, but there is no reservation for them in the education sector.