SCs, STs 3 times more backward than OCs/general: T’gana survey

THe Socio, economical, Educational, employ, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) appraise commissioned by the Telangana authorities endure year has indicated the prevalence of small and fragmented landholdings, with 80% of the households falling under the small landholding category having less than five acres.The SEEEPC survey, completed in January 2025, was kept in public domain on Wednesday night, after state backward classes welfare minister Ponnam Prabhakar, along with chief secretary K Ramakrishna Rao released it to the media.“The survey, covering approximately 35.5 million individuals across 242 castes, was the first comprehensive door-to-door caste survey of its kind in independent India,” Prabhakar said.The survey was analysed by an independent experts’ working group (IEWG), led by jstice B Sudershan Reddy and convened by economist Praveen Chakravarty and the report was submitted to the government in July 2025. It was also released in the public domain simultaneously.The 178-page report of the experts panel disclosed that Scheduled Castes (SCs) have the highest proportion of small landholding households at 90.5%, followed by Backward Classes (BCs) at 85%, suggesting that most families in these groups rely on marginal plots that are often less productive and economically unsustainable.In contrast, Other Castes (OCs) report a lower share of small holdings at 69.1%, indicating relatively greater ownership of medium and large land parcels. This structural advantage translates into better agricultural output, asset accumulation, and financial resilience.The disparity becomes more pronounced in the ownership of large landholdings, having more than 20 acres. The survey shows that 4.4% of OC households own such large tracts, the highest among all groups. Backward Classes and Scheduled Tribes account for 2.9% and 2% respectively in this category, while Scheduled Castes lag significantly behind at just 1%.Though the overall share of large landholders is small, the comparative gap highlights persistent structural inequality. It said OCs are nearly twice as likely to own large landholdings as Scheduled Tribes, underlining their continued dominance in agrarian assets.The SEEEPC findings point to a broader pattern where land, one of the most critical economic resources in rural Telangana. Remains unevenly distributed. “Reddy communities hold the largest share of land relative to their population in the state, followed by Velamas, followed by Koyas (belonging to Scheduled Tribes). In contrast, communities such as SC Bedas and OC Muslims possess disproportionately lower land assets,” the survey said.Interestingly, the survey has revealed that land ownership has no connection with social backwardness. For example, STs, by virtue of large ownership of dry or fallow land, score better than BCs and SCs, but it doesn’t translate into reducing overall backwardness.“There are several BCs such as the Goldsmith caste or BC-Christians who do not own much land, yet they are far less backward overall, through education and occupation. A BC caste like Kuruba (Kuruma), where a large majority of them own land, even if small land sizes, yet they are more backward overall,” it said.Survey findingsBackward Classes (BCs) form the single largest social group in the state, accounting for 56.36% of the population. Scheduled Castes (SCs) make up 17.4%, followed by Scheduled Tribes (STs) at 10.4% and General or Other Castes (OC) at 11.9%. Nearly 12 lakh individuals, or 3.4% of the population, chose to identify as having “No Caste.”Among individual communities, the Madiga community is the single largest caste group with 36.54 lakh people, constituting 10.3% of the population. The Sheik or Sheikh community follows at 27.95 lakh (7.88%), and the Mudiraj community at 26.36 lakh (7.43%).The Sugalis or Lambadis, also known as Banjaras, are the dominant Scheduled Tribe group at 24.02 lakh, comprising nearly 65% of the entire ST population in the state. The Yadava (Golla) community accounts for 20.17 lakh (5.69%), while the Reddy community, the most prominent among OC groups, numbers 17.06 lakh or 4.81% of the population.The total Muslim minority population stands at 44.57 lakh, comprising 12.56% of Telangana’s population. Of these, 35.76 lakh are classified as Backward Class Muslims, primarily under the BC-E sub-category, with the Shaik community being the largest identifiable group within it.The experts’ group identified the backwardness through a parameter called Composite Backwardness Index (CBI), a statistically derived score ranging from 0 to 126, built from 42 equally weighted parameters across eight broad categories: education, occupation, living conditions, income, land and assets, gender, social discrimination and access to finance.While the state average CBI score stands at 81, as many as 135 of the 242 castes, accounting for 67% of the total population, scored above this average, meaning they are worse off than the average Telangana citizen.While SCs and STs are found to be three times more backward than OCs on this index, BCs are 2.7 times more backward. “On a population basis, 99% of STs, 97% of SCs and 71% of BCs fall below the state average in terms of social development,” the report said.The SC Dakkal community recorded the highest CBI score of 116, making it the most deprived community in the state. The BC-A Pitchiguntla community followed at 110. At the other end of the spectrum, the OC Kapu community registered the lowest CBI score of 12.Communities such as OC Jains (13), OC Rajus (17) and OC Brahmins (22) also recorded very low deprivation levels, reflecting their historically privileged access to education, land and professional networks.Popular social scientist Prof K Purushottam Reddy said the SEEEPC survey provides a momentous opportunity to craft a comprehensive development model that can transform Telangana into a socially, politically, economically equitable, and environmentally sustainable state.“I suggest the government to use the survey and other available statistical datasets to gain necessary insights and formulate a sustainable development model for Telangana that can become an example and be replicated across India,” he said.Reddy said poverty alleviation efforts should be a significant focus, with efforts tailored to population clusters, that is, local body jurisdictions. These efforts must be tailored to specific communities and their social, economic, and ecological environments. “Any plans or schemes devised should be centred around individual population agglomerations represented by local bodies,” he said.