PATNA: Even as several teachers’ unions have called for a boycott of the second leg of the caste survey, which is all set to begin on April 15, in protest against the new recruitment rules rolled out by the state government, officials in the general administration department (GAD) said that they have not received any such report from any districts.
“We have not got any adverse report from districts about teachers who have been assigned work boycotting the survey. The second leg of the survey work will start tomorrow as per schedule,” said a senior officer in the GAD, in know of the matter.
In the second leg of the survey an estimated 2.92 crore families to be covered across the state whose caste and socio-economic profile would be collated by enumerators through door-to-door visits till May 15.
Sources in the GAD, the nodal department of the caste survey, said that all documents related to the survey work have been distributed to the selected survey officials comprising teachers, Anganwaadi sevikas, Asha workers, panchayat, and ICDS staff.
Several schoolteachers’ unions have given a call for boycotting the caste survey work in protest against the new rules rolled out by the state government for teacher recruitment a few days back. Several teachers’ unions are unhappy with the new policy and demanded that the government bring in necessary changes in the policy.
Patna District Magistrate (DM) Dr. Chandra Shekhar Singh too said that there was no such report of any boycott by any teachers group or any other group. “Around 15,000 officials, including enumerators and observers, have been assigned different responsibilities for the survey,” the DM said.
An estimated 3.50 lakh officials have been roped in for the caste and socio-economic survey, which completed its first leg in January this year. This is the first time; the state government is conducting a caste and socio-economic survey to gather information about the economic social status of the state’s population in an apparent bid to implement social welfare schemes, especially for the poor and deprived sections in a more holistic manner.
“Once the second leg is completed, we will get an authentic data of the total households in the state and also have district-wise data,” said another officer, handling the work.
