SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
Hyderabad: Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Telangana are three times more backward than general caste communities, Backward Classes (BC) are 2.7 times more backward, and 30 per cent of the state’s welfare beneficiaries come from communities that are less deprived than the state average. These are among the headline findings of the Telangana Socio, Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) Survey 2024 released on Wednesday, April 15.
The survey, referred to as the caste census, covered 3.55 crore people across 242 castes and, as the expert panel calls it, is as empirically equivalent to a census, having reached 97 per cent of the state’s population through a door-to-door enumeration exercise.
The nine-member Independent Expert Working Group (IEWG), chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice B Sudershan Reddy, with Prof Kancha Ilaiah as Vice-Chairman and Praveen Chakravarty as Convenor, was constituted in March 2025 to verify, analyse and interpret the survey’s findings. The group also includes former University Grants Commission (UGC) chair Dr Sukhadeo Thorat, Prof Shantha Sinha, Prof Bhangya Bhukya and others.
Development economists Prof Jean Drèze, scholar on inequality Prof Thomas Piketty and Prof Julia Cage of Sciences Po participated as special invitees.
SC Dakkal, the most backward caste in Telangana
The report’s central methodological contribution is the Composite Backwardness Index (CBI), which IEWG described as a first-of-its-kind in India. The CBI assigns each of the 242 castes a score between 0 and 126 across 42 equally weighted parameters, spanning education, occupation, income, land and assets, living conditions, gender, social discrimination, and access to institutional credit. They were calculated separately for rural and urban populations.
The most backward caste in the state is SC Dakkal, with a CBI score of 116. The least backward is Kapu, at 12. SCs as a group scored 96, STs 95, BCs 86, and general castes 31.
67 pc of population more backward than state average
Of the 242 castes, 135 – comprising 69 BCs, 41 SCs and 25 STs – scored above the state CBI average of 81. These 135 castes account for 67 per cent of the total population. Crucially, the report finds that 99 per cent of STs, 97 per cent of SCs, and 71 per cent of BCs belong to communities that are more backward than the state average.
All 18 castes in the general caste category fall below the state average, indicating relative prosperity.
The survey’s population breakdown shows BCs at 56.4 per cent of the state’s total population (2,00,35,840), SCs at 17.4 per cent (62,25,413), general castes at 11.9 per cent (42,42,905) and STs at 10.4 per cent (37,14,805).
An additional 3.4 per cent, which is nearly 12 lakh individuals, identified themselves as having “no caste.”
Occupational and educational disparities
The data lays bare deep structural inequalities. Nearly half, or 45.7 per cent, of SCs in the working-age population are daily wage labourers, against just 10.9 per cent among general caste. As much as 30 per cent of private sector professionals are from the general caste, while only 5 per cent are STs, despite both groups having roughly similar share of the population.
One-third of general caste children have access to private schools. The figure for SC and ST children is below 10 per cent. One-third of ST families live in homes with no toilet or tap water, only 5 per cent of general caste households face the same condition.
Disparities run deep even within broader social groups. Among BCs, nearly 75 per cent of youth from Goldsmith and Padmasali castes have received English-medium education, compared to fewer than 30 per cent among youth from the Mudiraj, Valmiki or Pitchiguntla castes. Within SCs, Mala Sale families on average own three times more land than Mahar families. Gond children drop out of school three times more often than children of the Lambadi tribe.
The most backward are not biggest beneficiaries of welfare schemes
One of the more pointed findings concerns the distribution of state welfare. The report analyses 11 major welfare schemes, including Rythu Bharosa, Cheyutha Pensions, Arogyasri, free Bus travel for women and government housing, with a combined annual budget of Rs 54,521 crore, and finds that 30 per cent of total beneficiaries come from communities that are less backward than the state average.
The Telangana government proposes to spend nearly Rs 30,000 crore annually on agricultural schemes such as Rythu Bharosa and free electricity for farmers. Of the beneficiaries of these schemes, 15 per cent are from the general caste, while only 12 per cent are SCs, a community that is three times more backward than general castes and far larger in number.
On the other hand, the report notes that 20 per cent of beneficiaries of the free bus travel scheme for women are SC women, against less than 10 per cent from general castes. This suggests that scheme is a more accurate welfare instrument than the agricultural ones.
‘No caste’ finding
The report identified 11,96,482 individuals who chose not to identify with any caste, making them the 10th largest community in the state. Their CBI score of 48 is well below the state average of 81, placing them among the least backward groups in Telangana.
The expert group said this finding provides rigorous empirical support for a long-held sociological observation that it is typically the more privileged who choose to disavow caste identity. Over 73 per cent of the “no caste” population resides within the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits.
The report notes that 43 per cent of those who identified as “no caste” claim to possess a caste certificate, and 13.5 per cent have previously accessed reservation benefits.
SOURCE : SIASAT
