SC sub-caste census faces resistance in Bengaluru, BJP threatens stir

A door-to-door campaign to determine the SC population across the 101 sub-castes has met with resistance in parts of Bengaluru and other urban centres in Karnataka with enumerators facing physical threats and non-cooperation from residents.

The BJP and sections of residents have also complained that the officials are pasting stickers on the walls of their homes indicating completion of survey without ever talking to them.

There are also suspicions some SC families may not have revealed their true sub-caste fearing consequences. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, however, has said they are free to use the QR code or disclose their sub-castes online.

Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa and Food Minister KH Muniyappa, representing the SC communities, raised the subject at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday and complained to the CM about the non-cooperation from people in Bengaluru.

The CM had in May kicked off the SC census to determine the population across the SC sub-castes and to assess their economic, educational and social backwardness as a precursor to introducing an internal quota. A commission headed by Justice HN Nagamohan Das has been manded to prepare the empirical data and end confusion over overlapping of communities in Adi Karnataka, Adi Andhra and Adi Dravida across the SC-Left (Madiga) and SC-Right (Holeya).

The BJP on Thursday threatened to launch a state-wide agitation on August 1 if the government does not come up with an internal reservation policy by then. Former Dy CM Govind Karjol (BJP) said the Basavaraj Bommai government had introduced an internal quota according to the population of sub-castes. Madigas (SC-Left) have been demanding a separate quota within the SC bloc.

While demanding the implementation of Bommai era policy, Karjol said the present exercise seemed like a conspiracy to create confusion and upend the internal quota system.

A rational internal quota has been the long pending demand of the most-backward groups in the SC community, who feel left behind in getting opportunities in professional courses and in government jobs. Siddaramaiah’s initiative on taking up an SC census follows the Congress-ruled Telangana’s successful implementation of an internal quota for SCs, dividing them into three broad groups.

The Supreme Court had, in August 2024, ruled that states could provide internal reservation within SCs, STs and socially and educationally backward classes to remove inequalities.