Questions such as ‘Do you go to a doctor or Tantrik if bitten by a dog or monkey’ part of 40-page Maratha quota survey

The questionnaire includes five modules having a total 154 questions ranging from basic family information with income and other details to socio-cultural information and health related behaviours of individuals.

The mandatory survey began across Maharashtra on Tuesday to determine the eligibility of the Maratha community as a backward class. The survey covers the Maratha community and the open category and will be completed by January 31. More than 1.25 lakh enumerators, including superintendents and officials, have been appointed to conduct the survey.

Questions aimed at gauging socio-cultural information of families, include queries such as whether or not there is a dowry system in the community, are widows allowed to remarry and if they can wear kumkum and mangalsutra which generally work as markers for married women. The survey also includes questions–Do married women have to cover their head? And has there been any inter-caste or inter-religion marriage in the family? This section also demands to know if there has been any suicide in the family in the past ten years and if yes what were the reasons.

Vijay Kombe, a senior teacher from Wardha, who is also state head of the Maharashtra Rajya Prathamik Shikshak Samiti, said, “If one teacher gets 100 households, it means he/she will require 200 hours in total. Looking at the nature of the questionnaire, the given task at hand is impossible to be completed within a week. Additionally, there are technical issues such as errors in the mobile application to fill data among all. As opposed to it, census surveys have less columns and longer tenure to complete the task.”

Kombe also shared how this is going to lead to tremendous academic loss at government schools and there was no consultation with teachers before deciding to impose the task on them. A teacher from Chalisgaon said, “The government schools already have paucity of teachers. And in this condition now, 3 out of total 4, 7 out of total 8 teachers are asked to work for the survey in order to complete the task on time.”

Pointing out how running schools is going to be very difficult with teachers out on Maratha survey duty, another teacher from Jalgaon said, “Each form takes about two hours to complete. Does the government think that teachers have such time to spend on non-academic tasks?” A teacher from Pune ZP, said, “Even teachers who are on leave for different purposes are sent show-cause notices for not participating in the survey work.”

Commenting on the rationale behind the questions asked in the survey, chief of Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission, Justice Sunil Shukre (Retd) said, “The list of questions was prepared by the commission after putting a lot of thought into it by experts from fields such as sociology, politics and law. The survey is aimed at knowing if there is backwardness and if yes at what level it is. The report, post survey, will provide answers to why certain questions were included in the list. There is no point questioning the rationale behind questions on the day when the survey has already begun.”

Responding to teachers’ concerns, Shukre said, “We had requested the government to provide manpower to conduct the survey. The decision on who should work was then taken by the government.”