Data, dissent and uncertainty

Karnataka has just completed the Social and Educational Survey of its population last week, a decade after the one conducted in 2015 whose report never saw the light of the day. The second survey came amid resistance from the dominant castes, backed by the Opposition BJP.

The exercise withstood attempts by its opponents to create controversy, including a legal challenge. It ended with about 90% of the State’s population covered in just over a month. About 6.13 crore out of the projected 6.85 crore population in the State were covered by October 31, 2025, when the door-to-door survey ended. The online window is open till November 10.

Many hurdles

Several challenges were raised, from questioning the competence of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes in holding the survey to disputing its legal basis, many doubted the intention and necessity of such an exercise that cost the exchequer about ₹450 crore. On the eve of the launch, the Commission, under pressure from the BJP and Hindutva groups, masked 33 Christian sub-castes in the list with Hindu caste prefixes.

Throughout the survey, there were also reports of enumerators, who were teachers or government employees, being abused by a section of the people, before shutting the door on them.

Though dominant castes have shown an antipathy to the survey, there are striking differences in the way this was expressed by different groups within this category. The politically-dominant and land-owning Vokkaligas in Old Mysore region, and Veerashaiva-Lingayats in north Karnataka, who opposed the last survey, remained highly critical of the present one too. But they took part in it. Both communities are not only in the backward classes list and beneficiaries of reservation, but establishing their numbers remains important for them to wield political clout. They asked their community members, through their caste organisations, to enumerate themselves in a certain way, so that their numbers can be projected as significant. 

However, a section of the Brahmin community, who do not count themselves as beneficiaries of government schemes or reservation, abstained. In Karnataka, the EWS reservation, which could help economically weaker households in public employment and education, has not yet been implemented.

Non-participants

Taking a cue from the Karnataka High Court’s order that made participation in the survey voluntary, many households refused to participate. Political leaders, including Union Minister Pralhad Joshi and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya, aired their opinion against the survey. In fact, Dharwad, represented by Mr. Joshi, lagged in the survey progress as the first deadline reached. Prominent people like Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy and his wife and Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murty not taking part also hit headlines.

In all, according to the Commission, about 4.22 lakh households (not all from the same community) refused to participate in the survey. About 34.49 lakh houses remained vacant or locked. The Commission will now look into secondary data of those households that have refused to take part before preparing its report.

Abstention by a section of people has faced criticism from several quarters. The households that refused to participate or the community leaders who opposed the survey have been accused of not just being insensitive to social justice in a larger sense, but even being elitist with little concern about the poor within their own community.

The coming months will possibly witness heightened anxiety among the most backward communities, many of which have not had representation either in political realm or bureaucracy. These communities are anticipating the submission of the report and its quick implementation. 

The Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayats do not want the report going public, while the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who form about 25% of the population, are indifferent because it is of little consequence to them. Kuruba, a large caste group within the OBCs, is looking to secure a Scheduled Tribe tag. With varied caste interests at play, how the report will be received and interpreted remains to be seen.