Telangana: SCs, STs three times more backward than General Castes, finds government survey

A caste and socio-economic survey conducted by the Telangana government has found that Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are three times more backward than General Castes, The Indian Express quoted Backward Classes Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar as saying.

The survey was conducted in 2024-’25 by the state’s Congress government. Its findings were released on Wednesday.

The survey found that Backward Classes are 2.7 times more backward than General Castes, The Indian Express reported.

The table presents the social category-wise population distribution from the SEEPC survey in Telangana.
•Scheduled Castes (SC):
61,84,319 people (17.43%)
•Scheduled Tribes (ST):
37,05,929 people (10.45%)
•Backward Classes (BC – excluding Muslim minority):
1,64,09,179 people… pic.twitter.com/uU75fyGTgE— IPRDepartment (@IPRTelangana) April 15, 2026

According to the study, 135 of the 242 castes in Telangana are more backward than the Composite Backwardness Index, PTI quoted an Independent Expert Working Group set up by the government to analyse the survey as saying. The 135 castes account for close to 67% of the state’s population.

The index is used by the state government to scientifically quantify the backwardness of castes.

Sixty-nine of the 135 groups are Backward Classes, 41 are Scheduled Castes and 25 are Scheduled Tribes.

“Expectedly, all the 18 castes within the more privileged ‘General Caste’ category that account for 12% of the total population fall well below the state CBI [Comprehensive Backwardness Index] average,” PTI quoted the expert working group as saying.

The study found that “every backward caste is...

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