Andhra Pradesh Government Announces Start of Extensive Caste Census from Jan 19

The Andhra Pradesh government is set to launch a comprehensive caste census on January 19, aiming to enumerate all castes in the state. The YSRCP government considers the caste census a significant initiative that could potentially improve living standards. Information and Public Relations Minister C Srinivasa Venugopala Krishna highlighted that India has not conducted a caste census since independence, only population censuses .

As part of the caste census, the state government elicited opinions from caste representatives across the state. Aiming to conduct the caste census in a fair and comprehensive manner, the southern state wants to project its enumeration exercise as a role model across the country. Though initially the caste census was announced to cover the 139 Backward Classes (BC) communities, now its scope includes all castes in Andhra Pradesh .

For the caste census, the state government will extensively deploy the village secretariat system and the volunteer system. The village secretariats are local administrative units that provide various services to the people at their doorstep. The volunteers are local residents who assist the secretariats in delivering welfare schemes and collecting data.