Andhra Pradesh govt kicks off comprehensive caste census on Friday

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday kicked off its comprehensive caste census to enumerate all communities in the state.

Information and Public Relations (I & PR) Minister C Srinivasa Venugopala Krishna said the census is scheduled for 10 days from January 19.

"The comprehensive caste census is scheduled for 10 days in one phase and if needed, it will be extended by four or five days," Krishna told PTI.

The Minister noted that volunteers will visit each and every home to collect the caste details, which will be relayed to the village secretariat system.

Andhra Pradesh becomes the second state after Bihar to take up the caste census.

Krishna said officials in the village secretariat system across the state will verify the accuracy of information collected by the volunteers and correct it, if necessary, before making the final record.

Each volunteer will cater to 50 households.

Krishna exuded confidence that the entire census process will be completed before the issuance of the election notification on or around February 15.

The YSRCP government has set the caste census as a major goal and feels that the enumeration can transform the living standards of people.

Krishna said there are many castes which are yet to receive welfare schemes from the government and the census will help them address this.

Earlier, Krishna said that there has been no caste census in India post-independence and that the government has conducted only population censuses.

As part of this exercise, the Andhra Pradesh government elicited opinions from caste representatives across the state.

Aiming to conduct the caste census in a fair and comprehensive manner, the southern state wants to project its enumeration exercise as a role model across the country.

Though the caste census was initially announced to cover only the 139 Backward Classes (BC) communities, its scope now includes all castes in Andhra Pradesh.

The Andhra Pradesh government will extensively deploy the village secretariat system for the caste census along with the volunteer system.