Mandya Tops Karnataka's Socio-Economic Survey With 98.03 Coverage

BENGALURU: Mandya district tops the State in the socio-economic and educational survey-2025 by reporting a coverage of 98.03 percent among 31 districts of the State. The socio-economic and educational survey began on September 22 and lasted till October 19. All districts report above 80 percent coverage while the average State coverage is 88.3 percent.

Deputy Commissioner of Mandya Dr Kumar stated in a release here on Tuesday as many as 5, 10, 000 families were surveyed by enumerators and a total of 18, 29, 582 population participated in the survey. The DC thanked enumerators over their work to cover each and every household of the district and termed the survey “a success” in Mandya.

After Mandya, Tumakuru stands next with a coverage of 97.3 percent, Chikkamagaluru-96.2 percent, Chitradurga-95.51 percent and Haveri-94.66 percent.

Low coverage has been reported in the districts of Kolar 83.72 percent, Bidar coverage stood at 83.32 percent, Yadgir-83.2 percent, Ballari -82.19 percent and Dharwad-80.96 percent.

A fresh socio-economic and educational survey was initiated after the previous survey of 2014 was not accepted by the State Government since the data was a decade old. Besides, politically dominated castes-Lingayats and Vokkaligas opposed the survey terming it as “unscientific.”

Over the fresh survey initiated in Karnataka, the High Court of Karnataka directed the officials concerned that the participation by people in the survey is voluntary and the data gathered during the survey should be kept confidential.

One of the families which refused to join the survey was Rajya Sabha member Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys Founder Narayan Murthy. She gave in writing a self-declaration form to the enumerator over her family’s unwillingness to participate in the survey citing that “They do not belong to any of the backward classes.”

The socio-economic survey was embarked upon by Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission to understand the backwardness of people. The survey was to be completed on October 7 but the State Government extended it over low coverage till then. It was extended till October 19.

The survey date has got further extension in Bengaluru to ensure maximum coverage in Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) limits and the survey will end on October 31.