Pics: Meryick D'Silva
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (DV)

Mangaluru, Apr 2: The social and educational census undertaken by the Karnataka government will be held for a period of 20 days from April 11 to April 30, said deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim.

Addressing a 'meet the press' here on Thursday April 2, the DC explained the concept and said, "The concept of census emerged in 1871 in India. It is done every ten years. From 1871 to 1931, it was done on the basis of caste alone, but later there were discussions to included other criteria also, and thereafter, general census was done excluding caste.

"This census by the state government will be done in 20 days covering important aspects like social, economic and educational status of the people. This survey consists of 55 points and requires 40 minutes for each family to answer. The chief minister has given much importance to this survey and wants to make it a role model for the entire India," the DC said.

"Special meetings and workshops were done to prepare DCs and ZP CEOs. The survey was supposed to be held in February with Asha and Anganwady workers, but it was later handed over to government servants so that it would be more authentic. Hence government officers have been chosen, who will be responsible for conducting the survey.

"The officers appointed for the job have to approach people till they get the survey done. If the family they are surveying is not available at the time of the visit, they should keep trying till they get the required details," he added.

District social welfare office Santhosh Kumar said, "There are 3,930 blocks in the district and 4.6 lac families. Seven officers have been appointed with DC as the chief survey officer. Each district has two resource persons, 47 master trainers, 26 charge officers, 4,125 statistical officers to collect data, and 26 designated officers."

The DC said, "Nearly 5,000 personnel are conducting the survey, and already sample surveys have been done in 6 places in taluks like Beltangady, Puttur, Sullia, Bantwal and Mangaluru rural and Katipalla under MCC limits. There are also requests from a few teachers to drop them out of the survey team, but it is not possible as there is shortage of staff, and also, it is a historic survey, so everyone should join hands to ensure its success."

He further said that the state has spent Rs 190 crore on this survey, out of which, Rs 6-7 crore was spent in Dakshina Kannada for various things like publicity and remuneration.

Explaining the importance of the survey, the DC said, "Under the the Directive Principles of the Indian Constitution, everyone should get equal justice, be it economic, social or political. This survey is to study how far equal justice has reached the people. There are reservations for certain sections, and we have to see to what extent those reservations have reached the people, and whether they are getting social justice. It is also to evaluate how welfare and development programmes can be offered to people. For all this, it is important to conduct this survey. Also, this survey is being one from the grassroots. So far there have been sample national surveys, but they were only samples. This will be an authentic survey."

District statistical offier Pradeep D'Souza said, "Officers have already been trained in four phases. Those doing the survey have to enter the data every evening during the course of the survey. Everything will be done in code procedure and a few things will be described.

"There are a total of 1,503 castes in the state, out of which 101 are scheduled castes and 51 scheduled tribes," he added.

To a query on what happens if a person does not want to reveal caste, Pradeep D'Souza said, "For those who do not want to reveal their caste, there is a provision of relevant code in the survey form."

On the exclusion of Roman Catholics from the list of castes and whether it would be included, he said, "It is difficult to include now but it can be mentioned in the form. Last year an advertisement about this was given in newspapers, but no representatives from Roman Catholics responded."

Information officer Khader Shah said that adequate publicity is being given to the survey. "There are vans that will go to villages and announce the survey at main places like markets. We are also consulting gram panchayat members and giving ads in local ailies and putting up hoardings," he said.

Santhosh added that if anyone giving wrong or false information in the survey form would be punished according to law.

Jaganath Shetty Bala, president of District Working Journalists' Association was present.