As the stage is being set for the commencement of the caste survey, the State government is actively considering fixing timelines for collection of data from all households across the State and its processing.
The government is reportedly preparing 55-point questionnaire for ascertaining the status of households as part of the survey. The questionnaire comprises details about the family, their religion, caste (sub-caste), land holdings and their size, movable and immovable assets, including cattle, vehicles and the type of fuel utilised for cooking purposes. The first phase of the programme is likely to involve fieldwork for house listing, data processing and setting up of enumeration blocks and other pre-survey works for three weeks from the date of launch.
The data collection will primarily be digital and each family will be given a printout of the questionnaire. Around 80,000 personnel are likely to be deployed for the purpose and they will be tasked with covering 80 families a day for 15 days.
This will be followed by the preparation of explanatory notes, revisits to missing houses and distribution of printouts of the questionnaire for tabling the details along with the signature of the head of the family which is likely to take another three weeks. The duly filled questionnaires would be stored in the respective mandal headquarters for future use.
After the survey, there would be random checks on households to verify the authenticity of the information for two weeks. Completion of the two phases along with data processing is likely to take eight weeks, according to the tentative schedule. The schedule has been prepared after duly examining the process involved in similar surveys conducted in Karnataka, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh as well as the expenditure incurred by the respective governments.
Karnataka government, for instance, incurred an expenditure of ₹162 crore for surveying 1.35 crore households collecting physical data over 50 days. A similar survey was carried out in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh for 15 days in completely digital mode, but no exclusive expenditure has been listed. In Bihar where the General Administration department conducted the survey, 2.77 crore households were covered with house listing taking 15 days and enumeration another 30 days taking the total survey period to 45 days.
Published – October 22, 2024 07:02 pm IST
