The findings of Telangana's landmark Socio, Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste Survey, known widely as the SEEEPC Survey 2024, were made public on April 15, 2026, along with the analysis report prepared by the Independent Expert Working Group. Together, the documents present the most detailed, data-backed portrait of caste-based deprivation in any Indian state to date, covering 3.55 crore people across 242 castes and reaching 97 per cent of the state's population through a door-to-door enumeration exercise. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Telangana are three times more backward than general caste communities, while Backward Classes are 2.7 times more backward. Additionally, 30 per cent of the state's welfare beneficiaries come from communities that are less deprived than the state average. The release of this data into the public domain marks a turning point in how the state approaches social policy and resource allocation.
The Survey, the Mandate, and the Expert Group
The SEEEPC Survey was authorized by the Telangana Legislative Assembly on February 16, 2024, following a Council of Ministers' decision on February 4, 2024. It was launched on November 6, 2024, and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy described it as a "mega health check-up" of Telangana's society. It covered 3.55 crore individuals across 1.12 crore households, achieving 96.9 per cent coverage. The exercise was conducted in two phases with over 1,03,889 enumerators and supervisors. Released on February 3, 2025, the survey's findings were submitted to a Cabinet sub-committee. The data, gathered voluntarily and confidentially, spanned 75 fields, offering a detailed view of socio-economic conditions across the state.
The nine-member Independent Expert Working Group, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice B. Sudershan Reddy, with Prof. Kancha Ilaiah as Vice-Chairman and Praveen Chakravarty as Convenor, was constituted in March 2025 to verify, analyse and interpret the survey's findings. The group also includes former University Grants Commission chair Dr. Sukhadeo Thorat, Prof. Shantha Sinha, Prof. Bhangya Bhukya, and others. Development economists Prof. Jean Drèze, Prof. Thomas Piketty, and Prof. Julia Cage of Sciences Po participated as special invitees.
The population breakdown produced by the survey is itself significant. Backward Classes account for 56.4 per cent of the state's total population at 2,00,35,840 individuals. Scheduled Castes make up 17.4 per cent at 62,25,413, general castes 11.9 per cent at 42,42,905, and Scheduled Tribes 10.4 per cent at 37,14,805. An additional 3.4 per cent, nearly 12 lakh individuals, identified themselves as having no caste.
The Composite Backwardness Index: A New Measuring Tool
The most significant methodological contribution of the IEWG report is the Composite Backwardness Index, referred to as the CBI. The CBI was designed to evaluate the relative backwardness of 243 sub-castes in Telangana based on SEEEPC data. Unlike traditional approaches that focus on population share, the CBI prioritises levels of deprivation, using 42 parameters ranging from education, land ownership, and living conditions to discrimination in public and religious spaces. Each sub-caste was assigned a backwardness score ranging from 0 to 126, calculated using a quartile-based statistical method. Individual parameters were scored from 0 to 3, with 3 indicating the highest level of deprivation.
The most backward caste in the state is SC Dakkal, with a CBI score of 116. The least backward is Kapu, at 12. SCs as a group scored 96, STs 95, BCs 86, and general castes 31. Of the 242 castes, 135, comprising 69 BCs, 41 SCs and 25 STs, scored above the state CBI average of 81. These 135 castes account for 67 per cent of the total population. The report finds that 99 per cent of STs, 97 per cent of SCs, and 71 per cent of BCs belong to communities that are more backward than the state average. All 18 castes in the general caste category fall below the state average, indicating relative prosperity. The data also reveals deep disparities within broader social groups themselves. Among Backward Classes, nearly 75 per cent of youth from Goldsmith and Padmasali castes have received English-medium education, compared to fewer than 30 per cent among youth from the Mudiraj, Valmiki or Pitchiguntla castes. Within SCs, Mala Sale families on average own three times more land than Mahar families. Gond children drop out of school three times more often than children of the Lambadi tribe. This intra-group inequality, the report notes, calls for policy that is sensitive not just to broad caste categories but to the specific circumstances of individual sub-castes.
Welfare Gaps, Occupational Divides, and the Question of Who Benefits
Perhaps the most consequential section of the IEWG report concerns the distribution of state welfare. The report analyses 11 major welfare schemes, including Rythu Bharosa, Cheyutha Pensions, Arogyasri, free bus travel for women and government housing, with a combined annual budget of Rs 54,521 crore, and finds that 30 per cent of total beneficiaries come from communities that are less backward than the state average.
The Telangana government proposes to spend nearly Rs 30,000 crore annually on agricultural schemes such as Rythu Bharosa and free electricity for farmers. Of the beneficiaries of these schemes, 15 per cent are from general castes, while only 12 per cent are SCs, a community that is three times more backward than general castes and far larger in number. In contrast, 20 per cent of beneficiaries of the free bus travel scheme for women are SC women, against less than 10 per cent from general castes, suggesting that this particular scheme functions as a more targeted welfare instrument than the agricultural ones. The occupational and educational data paints a similarly unequal picture. Nearly half, 45.7 per cent of SCs in the working-age population are daily wage labourers, against just 10.9 per cent among general castes. As much as 30 per cent of private sector professionals are from the general caste, while only 5 per cent are STs, despite both groups having roughly similar shares of the population. One-third of general caste children have access to private schools, while the figure for SC and ST children is below 10 per cent. One-third of ST families live in homes with no toilet or tap water; only 5 per cent of general caste households face the same condition.
The report also identified 11,96,482 individuals who chose not to identify with any caste. Their CBI score of 48 is well below the state average of 81, placing them among the least backward groups in Telangana. Over 73 per cent of the "no caste" population resides within the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits. The report notes that 43 per cent of those who identified as having no caste claim to possess a caste certificate, and 13.5 per cent have previously accessed reservation benefits.
On the legislative front, the Telangana government passed Bills to enhance the BC quota in education, employment, and local bodies and is pressing the Union government to include these laws in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, which would shield them from judicial review on grounds of exceeding the 50 per cent reservation ceiling. The state assembly also unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Union government to conduct a nationwide caste census, citing Telangana's survey as a model for the exercise.
The IEWG report, running to 300 pages, is described by the expert group as a first-of-its-kind in India in terms of its methodological depth and the breadth of parameters it applies. The findings, now in the public domain, are expected to shape Telangana's welfare architecture and to serve as a reference point for caste-based data collection efforts across the country.
