AA Edit | SEEPC Survey Finds Stark Economic Disparities In Telangana

The Telangana Socio-Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEPC) survey brought out stark economic disparities in the third richest state by per capita income, which could force policymakers to realign their schemes to reorient their policy interventions.

The survey data suggest that only 10.3 per cent of individuals pay income tax in Telangana. Only six per cent of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and five per cent of Scheduled Tribes (STs) paid income tax. Compared to this, backward classes (BCs) fare slightly better at 7.9 per cent, and 23.5 per cent of people from General Castes (OCs) pay income tax.

Similarly, nearly one-third — 32.5 per cent — households of STs reported a lack of toilets, followed by 18.8 per cent of those belonging to SCs. In comparison, 10.8 per cent of BCs and only 4.5 per cent of OCs lack such facilities.

On the employment front, 3.5 per cent of persons from the general castes have government jobs, indicating relatively greater access to secure public sector jobs among upper castes. Compared to this, SCs and STs stood at just 2.4 per cent, while BCs account for 2.3 per cent. For private jobs, STs have the lowest representation at 2.8 per cent, followed by SCs at 5.6 per cent and BCs at 6.3 per cent. In contrast, OCs account for 14.8 per cent.

However, the state performed exceptionally well in democratising land holdings, with STs topping the percentage of people having farm land, followed by SCs, BCs and OCs. The increase in land holdings among STs and SCs in the state could be credited to the successful land reforms initiated by the previous state governments.

As data is considered to be crucial for policymaking, the Central government should conduct an intensive survey to understand the real state of affairs of people in the country.