Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao said that the Intensive Household Survey conducted on Tuesday was aimed at ensuring that state benefits reach the deserving poor as effectively as possible. However, many people who most deserve aid were left out of the massive exercise to document the details of the 84 lakh households in the newly formed state, NGO workers claimed.
Four lakh enumerators made their way across Telangana in a one-day exercise on Tuesday to gather residents’ details – name, age, caste, religion, how many rooms their houses have, whether they have water, gas and electricity connections, disabilities, bank account numbers and movable assets. The chief minister said it was essential for the new state, which was carved out of Andhra Pradesh only in June, to have access to credible data in order to make policy decisions.
However, though the homeless, beggars, waste pickers and construction labourers are among those who urgently need state services, they were not given the opportunity to participate in the survey, said Mohammad Rafiuddin, director of the non-profit organisation Hyderabad Council for Human Welfare.
In addition, many households in unauthorised slum colonies had been left out of pre-survey visits over the weekend, said Srivyal Vuyyuri of the NGO Spoorti Foundation.
The survey had inspired both apprehension and aspiration among the slum communities that Vuyyuri and Rafiuddin work with. While they hoped that they would be given easier access to welfare programmes, most people were worried about sharing their bank account details. Since both the government and the Hyderabad High Court stated clearly that answering the survey was voluntary, many decided not to disclose this information.
The survey, which is costing the state Rs 20 crore, shut down most of Telangana on Tuesday. Office, schools, colleges, shops and even petrol pumps in Hyderabad were closed as people stayed at home to wait for the enumerator’s visit.
Actor Prakash Raj tweeted a view of Hyderabad’s streets this morning.
The standstill on survey day, during which even roadside tea stores have been closed, hurt daily wage labourers who had travelled back to their hometowns and villages for the exercise.
The biggest fear in the weeks leading up to the survey was that the government was trying to determine the nativity of state residents. Fears that people from the Seemandhra region would be identified and discriminated against were sparked by questions in a draft version of the survey form about which state the respondents were from, which language they spoke and when they had come to Telangana. As it turns out, these queries were not included in the final survey form, though it did have a column to list mother tongue.
Those who had been surveyed took to Twitter to express their reactions.
And this reassurance from Telangana Rashtra Samiti MP Kavitha Kalvakuntla.
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Four lakh enumerators made their way across Telangana in a one-day exercise on Tuesday to gather residents’ details – name, age, caste, religion, how many rooms their houses have, whether they have water, gas and electricity connections, disabilities, bank account numbers and movable assets. The chief minister said it was essential for the new state, which was carved out of Andhra Pradesh only in June, to have access to credible data in order to make policy decisions.
However, though the homeless, beggars, waste pickers and construction labourers are among those who urgently need state services, they were not given the opportunity to participate in the survey, said Mohammad Rafiuddin, director of the non-profit organisation Hyderabad Council for Human Welfare.
In addition, many households in unauthorised slum colonies had been left out of pre-survey visits over the weekend, said Srivyal Vuyyuri of the NGO Spoorti Foundation.
The survey had inspired both apprehension and aspiration among the slum communities that Vuyyuri and Rafiuddin work with. While they hoped that they would be given easier access to welfare programmes, most people were worried about sharing their bank account details. Since both the government and the Hyderabad High Court stated clearly that answering the survey was voluntary, many decided not to disclose this information.
The survey, which is costing the state Rs 20 crore, shut down most of Telangana on Tuesday. Office, schools, colleges, shops and even petrol pumps in Hyderabad were closed as people stayed at home to wait for the enumerator’s visit.
Actor Prakash Raj tweeted a view of Hyderabad’s streets this morning.
The standstill on survey day, during which even roadside tea stores have been closed, hurt daily wage labourers who had travelled back to their hometowns and villages for the exercise.
The biggest fear in the weeks leading up to the survey was that the government was trying to determine the nativity of state residents. Fears that people from the Seemandhra region would be identified and discriminated against were sparked by questions in a draft version of the survey form about which state the respondents were from, which language they spoke and when they had come to Telangana. As it turns out, these queries were not included in the final survey form, though it did have a column to list mother tongue.
Those who had been surveyed took to Twitter to express their reactions.
And this reassurance from Telangana Rashtra Samiti MP Kavitha Kalvakuntla.
