Andhra Pradesh is set to follow Bihar’s example and conduct a caste survey that mirrors the eastern state’s methodology despite the BJP’s attempt to discredit its findings.

The operational guidelines for the survey that the YSR Congress Party government has prepared have revealed that a committee of secretaries studied the Bihar methodology and decided to adopt it.

Andhra’s decision to conduct its own caste survey comes amid a growing demand from Opposition parties and social justice campaigners for a countrywide caste census by the Centre.

The demand is inspired by Bihar’s findings, which showed that the disadvantaged castes’ share of the population far outstripped the reservation volume for them. This led the Nitish Kumar government to pass legislation raising the total caste quota volume in the state from 50 to 65 per cent.

The Andhra cabinet has hinted at similar objectives, saying the state’s survey is meant for “collecting comprehensive caste-based data relating to social, economic, educational, livelihood, and demographic aspects of all sections and categories of people for better policy formulation and implementation of the schemes”.

The weeklong survey starts on November 27.

The Bihar survey avoided a methodological mistake that the UPA government’s countrywide Socio-Economic Caste Census of 2011-12 had made. The SECC surveyors simply asked the respondents their caste, leading some to refer to their surname, some to their gotra and some to their caste or sub-caste.

As a result, the exercise threw up several lakh spurious “caste names”, a mess that the NDA government cited while refusing to release the caste data.

Bihar, in contrast, gave its surveyors the state’s official list of 214 castes along
with one more category — “Others” — for those who might not fit into any of the listed castes.

According to the Andhra guidelines, the state’s enumerators too will be given the state’s officially notified caste list and will enter all the caste data provided by households into this given format.

Last week, Union home minister Amit Shah alleged that Bihar’s caste survey results were unreliable and had inflated the number of Muslims and Yadavs while deflating the Extremely Backward Classes population.

Like Bihar’s exercise, the Andhra survey will involve door-to-door visits by officials and voluntary disclosures by households. Documents will not be insisted on, and the data will be collected through a mobile app.

Information will be collected also on land and livestock possessions, professional activities, income from all sources, educational qualifications, type of housing, and access to clean drinking water, toilets and cooking gas.

G. Karunanidhy, secretary of the All India OBC Employees Federation, said the Andhra government had been influenced greatly by Bihar’s survey.

“The Bihar survey is very scientific. Andhra and Telangana have both witnessed demands for increased reservation volumes for the OBCs. I think Andhra will fulfil this demand based on data obtained from the caste survey,” he said.

Karunanidhy said that Telangana’s Backward Classes Commission had, on a nudge from the state government, sped up the process of conducting a scientific study on the social, educational and political status of the OBCs in the state, as well as their employability.

The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the OBCs – who include some minority groups -- in both Andhra and Telangana are entitled to 15 per cent, 6 per cent and 29 per cent reservation, respectively, in state government jobs and in admission to state-run educational institutions.

Justice Vangala Eswaraiah, former acting chief justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court and former acting chairperson of the National Commission for Backward Classes, said that “credible data” on the population share of the OBCs was key to policies on their welfare.

“The new survey will give data not only on the population share of the different social groups but also on their economic and educational status,” he said.

Apart from revising reservation volumes, the data will be useful in devising measures to improve education, healthcare and income opportunities for these communities, he added.