Celebrities to be roped in for ‘caste census’ awareness

November 27, 2014 12:46 pm | Updated 12:46 pm IST - BENGALURU:

Taking a cue from the Election Commission of India, the State’s Social Welfare Department will utilise services of celebrities for creating awareness among the masses about the significance of ‘caste census’. The census is seen as an important exercise to provide a scientific basis for determining backwardness of castes. It will commence in the last week of December.

“We will engage the services of film celebrities to inform people about the utility of the census. We will speak to them and seek their support for successful conduct of the census,” said Minister for Social Welfare H. Anjaneya. The ECI has been regularly roping in services of celebrities to create awareness among citizens about their right to vote during the elections.

The Minister, who held a video conference with deputy commissioners and chief executive officers of zilla panchayats across the State on Wednesday, said a huge publicity would be given to the census through print and electronic media. Leaders of various social and caste organisations had been told to hold meetings to create awareness among people, he said.

All deputy commissioners and CEOs of the zilla panchayats have been instructed to conduct census on a mission mode and complete it in within two months in all the 1.26 lakh blocks in the State.

A total of 1.25 lakh personnel drawn from various departments, retired teachers, and employees would be enrolled as enumerators for the mammoth exercise. Final dates of the census would be announced soon by the Chief Minister, he said.

A sum of Rs. 5,500 would be paid for each enumerator who would collect data about social and educational backwardness of people belonging to various castes. There are 1.28 crore households in the State. A sum of Rs. 117 crore had been allotted for the exercise and Rs. 35 crore had been already released. Findings of the census would be known by March 2015. The last caste-based census was conducted during the British rule in 1931.

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