Mangaluru, Apr 8: Confusion dominated a major part of a meeting of representatives of different communities convened by the district administration on Wednesday, to discuss various aspects of the caste-based census scheduled to commence across the State on Saturday.
In the meeting chaired by district in-charge minister Ramanath Rai at the deputy commissioner’s meeting hall here on Wednesday, several doubts and qualms were raised over the inclusion and non-inclusion of certain castes in the list of 1,503 castes provided by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes.
A Dalit representative said that certain castes that was included in Scheduled Castes was not mentioned in the list provide by the government, while certain other sub-castes were repeated in the list. There should be an option for inclusion of castes omitted from the list, he said, alleging that several members belonging to the caste omitted from the list would be denied their representation.
Another representative pointed out the lack of options to classify the Christian community as Roman Catholics, Protestants or others.
Deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim said that after preparing an initial form for data entry, the state government had subsequently included 31 omitted castes in the list provided, and further inclusion of additional or omitted castes was not possible at this juncture. It was not possible to make the inclusions at present, but however, the names of omitted castes of family members can be entered by the enumerators in the separate space provided in the form.
Clarifying the qualms of the members, Dakshina Kannada district statistical officer Pradeep D’Souza said that if names of certain castes/sub-castes had been left out, there was an additional option in the form to enter it.
Ramanath Rai said that the objective of the caste-wise censuswas to understand the social, educational and financial status of people. The proposed caste-based census will help in bringing equality among different castes besides providing social justice. Hence, people from the backward classes should cooperate with enumerators during the census by mentioning their original castes, he said.
Urging people to cooperate with the enumerators during the census by mentioning details truthfully, Mr Ibrahim said that mentioning the original castes would help the state government to frame specific policies for the welfare of the backward communities.
When asked about the inclusion of NRIs in the household details during the census, Mr Ibrahim replied that there was opportunity for every EPIC card (voter ID) holder to enter their details in the form during the census. At any juncture during the 20-day census, people can contact the concerned nodal officer or taluk officer for information regarding the census, he informed the representatives.
Health minister U T Khader, Zilla Panchayat CEO P I Sreevidya, president Asha Thimappa Gowda, district officials and several others were present in the meeting.
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