The Naveen Patnaik government has set a target to complete a comprehensive survey of social and educational conditions of people belonging to Backward Classes, by second week of July.
The Backward Class survey will be undertaken under the aegis of the Odisha State Commission for Backward Classes (OSCBC), which has issued an exhaustive guideline and timeline about the survey, to all district collectors.
“The collectors and commissioners of municipal corporations will be in overall charge of the survey and hence they should personally monitor different survey activities for its timely completion. The entire process of the survey should be completed by July 12, 2023,” V. V. Yadav, member secretary of the OSCBC.
“District survey management plan containing district profile, information on survey centres, enumerators, supervisors and other survey related officers along with their deployment should be prepared and sent to the Commission by the first week of March, 2023,” he underlined.
Collectors and municipal corporation chiefs have been directed to ensure that enumerators and supervisors retiring by July 31, 2023, are not deployed for the survey. It has also been instructed to identify the venue for training and arrange logistics. District collectors have been asked to make provisions of adequate number of vehicles for the surveys.
Initially, the Naveen Patnaik government wanted to carry out the survey in 2021, after constituting the OSCBC. It could not be carried out due to COVID-19 pandemic. As both the Biju Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party were trying to be the champion of the cause of Other Backward Classes, which have majority of population in the State, the State government had announced 27% of the seats in three-tier panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies. The Orissa High Court had quashed the notification saying there was no quantitative data on OBCs.
Raw deal
Though there is no foolproof census data on the composition of castes in Odisha, it is estimated that OBCs constitute more than 50% of the State’s population followed by tribals (22.85%), dalits (22.85%), upper caste (6%), Muslims 2.17% and others 2%.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal had requested Home Minister Amit Shah to insert appropriate columns in the Census Format 2021 to get a clear picture regarding the socio-economic and educational status of Socially Educationally Backward Classes, OBC and other classes, which would have helped the formulation of an appropriate policy for their benefits. As the 2021 Census had not taken place, the OBC survey remained in limbo. The BJD, however, gave close to about 40% reservation for other backward classes, while announcing candidates for the grassroots polls.
According to political observers, almost all mainstream political parties of Odisha are headed by upper caste leaders whose caste constitute less than 6% of the population, while leaders representing OBC (50%) have been given a raw deal. Though caste has never been a major factor in Odisha’s electoral history, during the past couple of elections, caste fault lines have emerged more prominently, threatening to destabilise political equations in elections.
