Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the Government will collect information about at least one lakh economically backward families among forwarding communities as part of a socio-economic survey.
Replying to a submission moved by Kerala Congress (M) legislator and Chief Whip N. Jayaraj in the Assembly on Wednesday, Mr. Vijayan said the survey did not intend to identify the recipients of welfare schemes among forward communities.
The sample survey is to gauge economic deprivation among forward castes and target welfare accordingly. It would identify the five most economically backward families among forward communities in every local body ward in the State. A Cabinet subcommittee was monitoring the survey.
The survey was of immense political and social import. Several influential social organisations, notably the Nair Service Society (NSS), had felt the reservation policy had bypassed the poorest among forward castes.
The NSS had demanded at least a minimum quota for the economically disadvantaged among forward caste communities in government jobs and public-funded educational institutions.
It felt the affirmative action for the poorest among forward caste communities would lift hundreds of people from poverty outside the current reservation system.
The Government has tasked the Kerala State Commission for Economically Backward Classes among Forward Communities to conduct the survey. Kudumbhashree workers, the State’s poverty eradication mission run exclusively by women, would lead the social survey.
The survey would identify the most economically backward families from forward caste communities at the local self-government level. The Government has sanctioned an initial amount of ₹80 lakh for the survey.
