Treat Sub-Castes of Vishwa Brahmins as One Caste in Survey: HC to Govt

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court directed the state government to treat the sub-castes Ausula, Kammari, Kanchari, Vadrangi and Silpis as being Vishwa Brahmins/Vishwa Karma, while recording data during the socio-economic survey, instead of recording them separately.

Justice Surepalli Nanda was dealing with a petition filed by Vishwa Brahmin Advocates Welfare Association and its secretary Pendota Srinivas, against the state government treating sub-groups/sub-castes of Vishwa Brahmin/Vishwa Karma as separate castes with independent codes in the survey. The petition requested the court to direct the government to treat the sub-castes as one caste in the survey

Whereas, the government submitted that with a view to capture granular data at the micro level, the Vishwabrahmin caste was classified into five categories. In the instructions manual, those sub-categories are listed to separately collect data.

By collecting data sub-category-wise, there will be more clarity regarding the status of each sub-group. This will also enable the government to have more clarity to formulate specific policies for each sub-group, government counsel submitted.

However, it was submitted to the court by the government counsel that the information captured in different sub-groups can be clubbed together in the software for giving details of Vishwa Brahmin caste and necessary directions will be issued to incorporate the changes in the software.