The Telangana government on Wednesday officially launched its comprehensive socio-economic, employment, political, and caste survey, a key issue raised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Congress ministers urged people to cooperate with enumerators without hesitation, assuring that all data would be kept confidential.

The census aims to gather detailed data on the social, economic, educational, and political demographics of various communities across the state. According to Congress, the caste census, which is being conducted for the first time since 1931, will help eliminate discrimination and inequalities while ensuring social justice. “Once the entire survey is completed, we will understand the states’s wealth, its power, and whether other avenues are equally accessible to the people. Once you understand, you can provide the necessary treatment to the people,” said Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu. He assured people that the data gathered in the survey would be kept confidential.

State Minister Ponnam Prabhakar on Wednesday launched the survey in the Hyderabad region from the headquarters of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation along with Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi. “This survey is meant to deliver benefits to the needy, don’t politicize it,” the Minister warned.

In the next three days, enumerators will affix stickers on the doors of identified households, and the actual survey will begin on 9 November. The stickers, which feature photographs of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, aim to raise awareness about the survey. Around 85,000 enumerators will survey 1,17,44,000 households. Each enumerator will visit 150 households and ask around 56 questions.

Apart from the government machinery, Congress leaders will also be actively associated with the census at the ground level. The party has appointed coordinators to oversee the survey at the ground level and the PCC will also coordinate with district observers and party functionaries involved in the census. On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi had said that the caste census would provide the country with both a political and developmentalal instrument to assess country’s progress. He said Telangana would serve as the model for the caste census in the entire country. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said the caste census was “an ideological commitment and personal promise of Rahul Gandhi to the nation” and his government was committed to implementing this promise.