Karnataka announces door-to-door collection of data on SCs even as fate of OBC survey still unclear

The Print

05-05-2025

Over 65,000 teachers will be roped in as enumerators with one supervisor assigned for every 10-12 surveyors. A sum of Rs 100 crore will be spent on the exercise. SCs form 17.15 percent of Karnataka's population, according to the 2011 Census.
The census will be headed by the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government appointed one- member commission under Justice (retired) Nagamohan Das between 5 and 23 May in three phases that include door-to-door collection of data, special training camp and online self-declaration camps.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government Monday commenced its ambitious census of the Scheduled Caste (SC) population to gather empirical data on sub-caste demographics and to help implement internal reservation among marginalised groups.
There are 101 communities or sub-groups within the SC population in Karnataka. 'In these 101 communities, to give internal reservation, we need exact data,' Siddaramaiah told reporters Monday in Bengaluru.
The move follows a Supreme Court ruling on 1 August 2024, allowing states to introduce internal quotas for SCs based on empirical evidence.
He added that without empirical data, it would be difficult to ascertain if these sub-groups belong to 'left, right' or any other umbrella groups. He said that there was no official data on the population of groups like Adi-Dravida, Adi-Karnataka or Adi-Andhra or any others.
Several people, he said, would have listed themselves under different groups that make it difficult to provide reservation-related benefits or even determine the exact population. 'This survey ensures no community is left behind in Karnataka's development journey,' Siddaramaiah added.
The Nagamohan Das Commission is expected to submit the report within 60 days after the completion of all three phases of the exercise.
The government is undertaking the census of the SCs at a time when its caste census has been shrouded in uncertainty. Siddaramaiah commissioned the survey in 2015 during his first term as CM. But the report was never accepted until early last year and its findings are yet to be officially released.
The state government is scheduled to meet 9 May again to deliberate on the findings of the caste census but the CM has faced many challenges in releasing them, so far. Siddaramaiah's deputy D.K.Shivakumar and several other ministers have openly asked for the census report to be scrapped since it seemingly does not represent their true population figures.
Siddaramaiah, meanwhile, said that the 2015 caste census and the exercise being carried out now are 'not related'.
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'Left, right, touchables & others'
In March 2023, former CM Basavaraj Bommai announced internal reservations ahead of the assembly elections that year. The SC (Left) category was entitled to get 6 percent, SC (Right) 5.5 percent, 4.5 percent for 'touchables', and 1 percent for 'others', Bommai had said.
Soon after the announcement was made, members of prominent SC communities pelted stones at B.S.Yediyurappa's home in Shivamogga to express their anger over the capping on reservation benefits.
Bommai had also taken the decision to remove Muslims from the backward classes list and redistribute the 4 percent reservation under 2B to Vokkaligas and Lingayats in two newly carved out categories.
Both proposals were challenged politically, legally and by members of the very communities he was trying to placate. Internal reservation has been a key contention in Karnataka with several communities within the SC umbrella supposedly eating up the majority of the benefits.
After several years of protests by SC groups demanding reservations within reservations, in 2005, the then Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government appointed a commission led by retired high court judge A.J. Sadashiva to look into the equitable distribution of reservation benefits among SCs. The commission filed its report in 2012, recommending that the 101 caste and sub-caste groups among the SCs be divided into 'left', 'right', 'touchables' and 'others'.
The 'left-right' dichotomy, found in Karnataka and other parts of south India, is rooted in historical divisions among SC groups. The term 'touchables', meanwhile, refers to historically disadvantaged communities—the major groups being Banjaras, Bhovis, Korachas and Koramas—who were included alongside 'untouchables' in the depressed classes list of the erstwhile state of Mysore, and later incorporated into the SC list.
Politically, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have drawn support from various groups and have attempted to reach out to those who don't.
Congress national president Mallikarjuna Kharge is from the Holeya community, which is considered 'Right', and Karnataka cabinet minister K.H.Muniyappa is from the Madiga community, classified as 'left'.
Communities like Banjara, Bhovi, Korcha and Kurmi are classified as 'touchables' and around 89 groups come in the 'others' category', according to the state government. There are 21 caste groups that come under SC (right), and 25 in SC (left), according to experts.
The Sadashiva Commission's survey—assessing the socio-economic situation of 96.6 lakh SC people—reportedly found that the 'left' communities account for about 33.47 percent of the SC population, 'right' communities for 32 percent, 'touchables' for 23.64 percent and 'others' for 4.65 percent. Many survey respondents reportedly refused to answer, so the figures don't add up to 100 percent. It estimated that there are about 25 'right-hand' communities and 20 'left-hand' ones.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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