Karnataka social survey: Coordinators struggle to frame tricky questions

BENGALURU: As Karnataka’s Backward Classes Commission embarks on a unique analytical socio-economic survey of the state’s population, a month-long pilot project done in preparation for the big event in April has thrown up interesting chinks that need ironing out.

“Just how do you frame a question enquiring whether you have ‘bahu patni’ or multiple wives, or even how much you earn? Our enumerators have found these two questions a little difficult to ask,” Shalini Rajneesh, principal secretary of the Backward Classes Commission of Karnataka, told ET. Rajneesh, under whom this survey will be held, said the department is gearing up for the survey in the minutest detail.

“The exercise will be held between April 11 and 30…we have 1.24 lakh enumerators, who have a target of around 100-150 households per person. Per form, with its 54 questions, including whether you are transgendered what your caste is, why you dropped out of school, and what your caste is referred to as locally, will take around 50 minutes to fill,” she said.

The opposition has raised a red flag over Christians and Muslims among backward classes being enumerated as the first step to getting them reservations.

“We have strongly objected to certain Christian communities being referred to as Hindu sub-castes just to avail of reservations. When the Constitution does not allow for reservation on the basis of religion, why this?” BJP spokesperson Suresh Kumar asked.