AP Caste Survey 2023 Guidelines

AP Caste Survey 2023 Guidelines Conduct of Survey for collecting comprehensive caste-based data relating to socio-economic conditions - Better formulation and implementation of the schemes - Operational Guidelines - Orders

Planning Department - Conduct of Survey for collecting comprehensive caste-based data relating to socio-economic conditions - Better formulation and implementation of the schemes - Operational Guidelines - Orders - Issued.

 

PLANNING (XII) DEPARTMENT

 

G.O.Ms.No.17   Dated:20-11-2023.

 

Read the following: -

 

Ref:- G.O.Rt.No.68, Planning (XII) Department, Dated: 26.05.2023.

 

ORDER:

 

Government of Andhra Pradesh is committed to ensure that the fruits of welfare and development reach the poorest of the poor, vulnerable, and disadvantaged sections of the society. The Government, as part of its holistic strategy to alleviate the people from the abject poverty and improve their living standards, started implementing a number of programmes /schemes under the umbrella welfare schemes of "Navaratnalu".

 

Government of Andhra Pradesh has set a benchmark in delivering public service in the State, where financial benefits have been distributed to all the eligible beneficiaries, duly ensuring the highest level of transparency and accountability in programme execution. About Rs.2.37 lakh crore has been transferred directly under DBT into the accounts of the nearly 8.22 crore beneficiaries (one person may have received more than one benefit) under the "Navaratnalu" and related allied programmes, leaving no scope for corruption and leakage. Segments cutting across different sections of the population such as Farmers (including the Tenant and RoFR), Women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes including the EBC category, Minorities and students have been the major beneficiaries of these schemes. Simultaneously, alongside extending financial support to different sections of the population, the Government has taken up institutional building by putting in place several institutional social structures such as Corporations for Backward Classes (56), Scheduled Castes (3), Scheduled Tribes (1) and (7) other Corporations for Economically Backward Classes.

 

Since these welfare programmes have been under implementation for the last four years, the Government, with an intent to reassess the outreach and quality of service delivery, proposed to undertake a broad-based survey across the villages/towns in the state. The existing scheme-specific departmental databases are working in silos and posed a bottleneck in formulating holistic development strategies for the State and demands for a comprehensive and integrated database leading to more informed decision-making. Lack of comprehensive data obstructs formulation of effective policies tailored to the distinct requirements of different caste groups. Further, the decennial population census mainly focuses on data relating to SCs & STs, leaving a substantial void in comprehending the Socio-Economic aspects of OBCs & their subdivisions.

 

The Caste Survey has the potential to reveal the development gaps and disparities in the social and economic opportunities within various castes and can play a crucial role in enabling customized development strategies for the historically marginalized communities.

 

While the Government is embarking on launching the proposed caste-based survey in the State, a resolution was also passed in AP state Legislative in November 2021 requesting Government of India to take up caste-based census while conducting the general Census of 2021.

 

In the reference read above, Government constituted a Committee to assess such caste surveys done in other states and study the methodology and its adoptability to the state of Andhra Pradesh. The committee has studied the methodology adopted in respect of similar survey done by the Bihar state. Two meetings were conducted at Government level with the Members of Committee on the proposal and finalized the modalities to conduct survey in the state.

 

In the above circumstances, based on the feedback and compelling public interest and in furtherance of the Government's efforts to achieve inclusive growth in the state, the committee proposed a suitable methodology to conduct a survey in the state for collecting comprehensive caste-based data relating to socio economic conditions to support the State Government in better Policy formulation and implementation of the schemes. Such an integrated database will be useful to the Government to cope with beneficiary gap filling, reach out on a saturation basis, stabilization of the beneficiary data and ensure better service delivery to the targeted beneficiaries eventually leading to better policy making.

 

Government after careful examination of the proposal hereby order to conduct the survey in the state for collecting comprehensive caste-based data relating to social, economic, educational, livelihood, and demographic aspects of all sections and categories of the people to support the State Government in better Policy formulation and implementation of the schemes and hereby issue the following operational guidelines for the successful and smooth conduct of the survey in the state: -

• The schedule of the Survey shall be issued by the Planning
• The VSWS department shall be the Nodal Department for conducting the survey.
• The Survey shall be conducted in a single phase and the unit of data shall be a household. The tools for data collection will be a mobile application (app) to be designed specifically for the said purpose by the VSWS Department. The information provided by the respondent to be entered in the mobile app without insisting on any documentary evidence.

Development of Mobile Application & Data Security:

1. The mobile application (mobile app) shall be developed as deemed proper by the VSWS Department duly making provisions to purify the existing data (like Public Distribution System, Pensions and other data bases) and add new households/members which are not covered earlier.
2. While developing the 'Mobile app' and storing/processing the survey data, the VSWS department is directed to comply to the IT standards related to Software and system integration (Coding, Testing and Cyber Security) , Data hosting, Data sharing and database  access , Mobile applications development etc., as specified in GO.Ms.No.3, ITE&C Dept., dated 08.07.2020.
3. Similarly, laws/regulations in force relating to data security and data privacy shall be in accordance with the prevailing data security policy of the State/GoI.
4. Data Security concerns shall be duly factored in while developing the mobile application and during the conduct of survey.
5. The VSWS Department to ensure that the entire population is covered during the caste survey and no household be left out.
6. Further in order to cover the door locked/out of station/people hospitalized etc., the VSWS Department shall make necessary arrangements to collect data online or at village/ward Secretariat also.
7. Special care shall be taken to cover the nomadic population and migrated households during the survey.

Questionnaire and incorporation of Caste Masters:

1. The Social Welfare Department shall finalize the Survey schedule (Questionnaire) in consultation with the concerned departments and hand it over to the VSWS Department for preparation of mobile application.
2. The HoDs of all the Welfare Departments shall ensure that all the castes as per their caste masters have fully been incorporated in the mobile application including Telugu nomenclature in the 'app' developed by the VSWS department. The Mobile 'app' may be demonstrated to the HoDs of Welfare Departments and obtain sign off before deploying it in the field.

Trainings:

1. All Welfare Departments shall prepare training PPTs relating to their department including 'do's' and 'don'ts', and the Director of Social Welfare shall consolidate all welfare training PPTs and furnish to the VSWS department for preparation of training module based on the operational procedure of data collection app
2. The VSWS Department shall prepare a user manual, a comprehensive document with pictorial depiction of the mobile application for the use of the field level survey staff. The VSWS department shall also prepare the Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) to conduct the survey with the mobile application (app) duly incorporating the training material supplied by the Welfare departments.
3. The Secretaries / HoDs of VSWS & Welfare departments at the state level shall impart trainings (ToTs) to all the District Collectors, District Officers concerned and other Master Trainers proposed by the District Collector for conducting the
4. The District Collectors, District Officers and Master Trainers shall in turn conduct training to all the Officers concerned, Enumerators and Supervisors in the district at various levels.

 Pilot survey:

1. Before conduct of actual survey, the VSWS Department may conduct a pilot survey in about 5 secretariats i.e., 3 in rural and 2 in urban areas covering different regions in the State to test the mobile 'app', to estimate the time required to conduct the survey and to understand the problems encountered by
2. Based on the experience of the Pilot Survey, necessary changes to fine tune the mobile application, be carried out.

Enumeration & Supervision:

1. The VSWS department, as the Nodal department shall utilize the services of their Secretariat staff for data collection who shall be the Enumerators, for the conduct of the Survey.
2. The services of the officers of the Welfare, PR&RD, Planning and MA&UD departments shall be utilized at various levels to arrange for the timely completion of caste survey. Accordingly, suitable instructions shall be issued by the Departments
3. The District Collector shall identify suitable officers to supervise the survey from Revenue, MA&UD, PR&RD, Welfare and Planning departments. They shall be designated as Survey Supervisors and their role is to track the progress of the Survey and ensure quality of the data being collected by the enumerators as part of the survey.
4. Further, Officers at the District/divisional level shall be deployed for random verification of the data collected by the They shall ensure the accuracy of the data being collected by the enumerators as part of the Survey.
5. The VSWS department has to identify the suitable number of households for random verification.

Awareness and publicity:

1. Proper awareness (IEC-based/Social/Digital media-based) shall be created among all the stakeholders on conduct of caste survey in the state. The objective is to make people aware and understand the purpose of the survey.
2. The AP Digital Corporation to publicize in social media about the survey and ensure that the message reaches all households in the sate.
3. Similarly, the District Collector to arrange beat of tom - tom in all the villages / wards.
4. The VSWS Department shall utilize the services of Volunteers and Secretariat staff in the village/ward, to inform all the households regarding the conduct of the caste survey.
5. The VSWS department with the support of the I&PR department shall ensure that proper public awareness is created about the survey and each citizen understands the importance of providing correct data to the enumerators.
6. Due awareness shall be created that ''the caste enumerated during Caste Survey shall not be used for caste certificates". Revenue Department will issue caste certificates as per the procedure in vogue.
7. Awareness shall be created that the survey data will not be linked to sanction any welfare schemes.

Help desks — Appointment of Nodal Officers: 

All Welfare Departments shall establish help desks and appoint Nodal Officers at State and District level to provide clarifications from time to time and they shall function till the completion of the survey.

Stakeholders Consultation (Round table meetings)

1. The Welfare Departments shall issue detailed instructions to conduct stakeholder meetings at the State / Regional / District level.
2. All District Collectors shall conduct stakeholder meetings duly inviting the Hon'ble Ministers, MPs, MLCs, MLAs and other District Level Public representatives, Chairpersons of various Caste Corporations, Representatives of the Caste Welfare organizations, all Welfare/other officers in the District etc.

Institutional Mechanism:

At State level:

1. The VSWS department as a Nodal department shall be the custodian of the data, maintain its security and also submit the final report to the Government.
2. The VSWS department shall issue detailed instructions regarding timelines relating to training, pilot survey, data collection, supervision and data compilation separately.
3. A State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC) shall be established for close monitoring of the survey with the following officers:

SI.No.	Designation	Role
1	Director, Social Welfare	Convenor
2	Director, GVWV&VSWS	Member
3	Director, BC Welfare	Member
4	Director, Tribal Welfare	Member
5	Commissioner/Director of Minorities Welfare	Member
6	Commissioner, Panchayat Raj	Member
7	Commissioner & Director Municipal Administration	Member
8	Director, M&R, Planning Dept.	Member

• The SLMC shall keep surveillance on the daily progress and data collection and supervision over the Survey. Any gaps or errors are noticed, immediate efforts to rectify the same shall be initiated.
• District Level Monitoring Committee (DLMC) shall be established at district level, headed by the Joint Collector and DESO (CPO) as convenor with the members of all welfare /PR&RD/ Revenue/ Municipal/VSWS departments.
• The District Collector may nominate any other Officers to the DLMC as required. In respect of Municipal Corporations, the District Collectors shall appoint respective Municipal Commissioners and in ITDAs, the concerned Project Officers as Nodal Officers for conduct of caste survey.
• VSWS Dept. shall develop a dashboard to track the progress of Caste Survey and provide access to the members of the SLMC/DLMC/Dt Collectors.

At District level:

1. The Collectors and District Magistrates shall be overall in-charges in the respective districts for conduct of the survey.
2. The Joint Collectors shall be appointed as Nodal Officers in their respective districts for conduct of the survey.
3. Micro level planning for conduct of survey shall be prepared, duly keeping in view of the strength of the VSWS secretariat staff, size of the enumeration block, and duration to cover allotted households by the Enumerators.
4. Route maps and Day wise visit schedule shall be prepared well in advance and a copy of the Day wise schedule be published in the Village/Ward Secretariat Notice Board.

General instructions:

• No functionary related to the Conduct of Survey be allowed to avail leaves till its completion, except on grounds of medical emergency.
• All the Departments concerned and the District Collectors shall take immediate necessary action for the smooth and successful conduct of the
• Budget provision to a tune of Rs. 10.19 crores has been made to meet the expenditure relating to conduct of trainings at various levels, for training material and other logistics. The Finance Department has concurred the proposal vide their UO.No.FIN01-FMUOPC (GAD.2)/52/2023 (Comp.no.2242491) dt.30.10.2023.

Download G.O.Ms.No.17  Dated:20-11-2023