Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Hyderabad: The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh launched a comprehensive caste census on Friday to enumerate all the castes in the state.
A special phone app has been designed by the government to conduct the census, expected to be completed in another 20 days to one month. Andhra Pradesh has become the second state in the country, after Bihar, to launch such a caste census.
Village and ward volunteers are being utilized to undertake the census with the help of ward and village secretariats. Special training was also provided to the volunteers and staff. More than 700 caste groups are available on the mobile application for the public to choose theirs. The 'No caste' option has also been provided.
While the YSRCP government had in the past passed a resolution demanding a nationwide caste census and forwarded it to the Centre, the latest move comes just months before the general elections and the changing caste matrix in the state after Jana Sena and TDP announced an electoral alliance.
In the run-up to the launch of the census, roundtable meetings were held in different parts of the state to receive suggestions or objections from representatives of all caste groups.
According to some rough estimates, the BCs, which include around 143 different caste groups, comprise around 37 percent of the state’s population of approximately 4.98 crore. Kapus and various OBC groups are numerically significant, constituting around 15 percent of the overall population of Andhra Pradesh.