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Journalism of Courage
A day before caste survey begins in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday made it clear that only castes, not sub-castes, along with economic status of each family will be catalogued, adding that proper training was imparted to the enumerators.
The CM, who has been on Samadhan Yatra, told reporters: “As we want an error-free caste census, proper training had to be given to all those who would undertake the enumeration process. For example, if someone mentions his/her sub-caste in place of caste, it has to be cross-checked and corrected. This is why we needed to train the enumerators.”
The CM also made it clear that economic status of each family will be duly mentioned in the survey. “We will ask economic status to get an idea (on what needs to be done later about them). We will also get the number of family members living in and outside the state. The enumerators will also talk to people living outside the state,” said Nitish.
A senior government official said that the survey will start simultaneously from district and panchayat levels. “Each house will be given a enumeration number and we will get the exact number of people living in a house with details of their caste and what do they do for a living,” said the official, adding that people would not need to furnish any papers during the process.
As per a government circular, a district magistrate was competent to choose enumerators from among teachers, Aaganwadi, Jeevika or MGNREGA workers. The process, however, would maintain secrecy because of its sensitive nature. A mobile App would compile the entire data and entire caste census process should be completed in two months.
Bihar government had decided to go for the caste survey as all political parties, including BJP, were unanimous on the matter even as the Centre turned down the demand for a nationwide caste census.
