Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had time and again mentioned that official statistics regarding the weaker sections was not available in the country till date. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Telangana Government has constituted a 11-member Independent Expert Working Group headed by former Supreme Court Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy to analyse and interpret the data collected during the Socio, Economic, Education, Employment, Political and Caste Survey 2024 (SEEEPC survey).
Principal Secretary to Government Sandeep Kumar Sultania on Wednesday (March 12, 2025) issued orders constituting the Expert Working Group. Apart from Justice Sudarshan Reddy, other members are Prof Kancha Ilaiah, Prof Shantha Sinha, Prof Himanshu, Dr. Sukhadeo Thorat, Nikhil Dey, Prof. Bhangya Bhukya, Prof. Purushotham Reddy, Prof. Jean Dreze, Prof. Thomas Piketty and Praveen Chakravarty.
An Advisory Committee constituted by the Planning Department in February decided to constitute the Independent expert working group to carry out analysis of data of SEEEPC Survey 2024 conducted by the government for formulation of evidence-based policies for various social sectors in the State.
The Independent expert working group will analyse and interpret the data of the survey and submit a report to the government within a month. Hyderabad District Collector and State Nodal Officer for SEEEPC Survey Anudeep Durishetty will act as the secretary to the working group. The Chief Executive Officer, Telangana Development Planning Society, will provide all secretarial assistant to the working group, the order mentioned.
Survey in November
The Telangana government undertook the massive exercise of conducting survey to assess economic, social, educational, political and caste status of all households across the State from November 6.
As many as 3,54,75,554 people were covered under the survey, wherein enumerators went door-to-door to collect details in prescribed forms. A total of 1.12 crore families, including 66,99,602 families in rural areas and 45,15,532 families in urban areas, were covered over a period of 50 days. A special drive was conducted last month to cover those who not could participate in the survey.
56.33% BC population
Key findings of the survey revealed that the population of Backward Classes, including Muslims, constituted 56.33% in the State. There were 35,76,588 Muslims in Backward Classes (BC) category which constitutes to 10.08%. Number of people, other than Muslims, belonging to Backward Classes (BC) were 1,64,09,179 (46.25%); people belonging to Scheduled Castes were 61,84,319 (17.43%); 37,05,929 people belonged to Scheduled Tribes (10.45%) and 56,01,539 people, including Muslims, belonged to Other Castes (OC) which constitutes to 15.79%.
The SEEEPC survey report was approved by the State Cabinet last month and tabled in the Legislature during a special session. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had time and again mentioned that official statistics regarding the weaker sections was not available in the country till date. He had pointed out that after 1931, enumeration of the weaker sections was not conducted in India. The details of the weaker sections were not included in the national census report, he said.
Published – March 12, 2025 10:46 pm IST
