The Kerala State Commission for Economically Backward Classes among Forward Communities on Thursday said the proposed socio-economic survey among forward communities was meant to identify the problems faced by them rather than pinpoint beneficiaries for any government scheme.
After holding talks with organisations here, chairman M.R. Hariharan Nair said a sample survey would commence soon in the State. The survey would look into the problems faced by economically backward families from 164 unreserved classes. Data would be collected from five families each in the 20,000-plus local body wards in the State. Kudumbashree would do data collection. Data compiled by social organisations working in this field also would be accepted by the commission.
The data collection would be completed by December 31 so that the commission could submit its report to the State Government by the end of February next year. The commission had prepared a questionnaire and an app for facilitating the survey. The survey is expected to cost ₹75 lakh.
The Nair Service Society had opposed the sample survey calling it inadequate. But the commission termed such criticisms baseless. Spending crores of rupees on a survey covering each and every household was impractical in the present scenario, given the purpose of the exercise. The survey was aimed at understanding problems. It was not designed to identify beneficiaries for any Government scheme, he said.
Further, the survey would not impact the benefits enjoyed by the economically weaker sections. Any fear in this regard was baseless, he said.
Forty-three organisations attended a State-level meeting organised by the commission on Thursday. It also plans to hold zonal explanatory meetings and hearings in Palakkad (October 20), Kottayam (October 21), Kollam (October 22), Kasaragod (October 26), and Kannur (October 27) before launching the survey.
