The Telangana state government is getting ready to present a ‘vocation-based’ Budget for 2017-18. The TRS leadership time and again emphasized that their government will strive for the upliftment of Mudiraju, Yadav, Golla, Kurma,Padmashali and all those communities which are associated with caste based occupation. KCR said that his priority would be to improve the flow of financial assistance in the rural areas to support people engaged in traditional vocations.
In his recent public meeting at Khamman,the CM announced that his government is planning to distribute about 4 lakh sheep units to members of the Yadav community at 75 per cent subsidy in the next budget.While the task to uplift the neglected communities is commendable, there is a difference between promoting an occupation and adding caste tag to vocation.
According to the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 report submitted to the Union Minister, the dependence of rural households on daily wage work as their main source of income is somewhat less in Telangana compared to the South India average of 52.59 per cent and national average of 51.18 per cent. The dependence of rural households on cultivation is second highest in Telangana with the vocation being the main source of income for 26.16 per cent.
India’s caste system is one of the world’s oldest forms of surviving social stratification. Why wouldn’t it survive, if day in and out politicians are ensuring to strengthen caste based politics. Be it in the form of reservations or encouraging caste based occupation.This move has been viewed as the TRS’ strategy to strengthen its vote bank in the run-up to the 2019 Assembly elections.
A landmark ruling by the Supreme Court has banned the use of religion and caste by politicians seeking votes. However, the ruling would have hardly any effect because it was too difficult to implement.
TRS government is conducting meetings with such communities and even called upon the members of caste-based communities to register their names with the respective societies to avail the benefits being extended by the Government for their betterment. One of the dire consequence is the sudden rise in the people who want to identify themselves with their caste names.
The government claims that the idea behind this exercise is to encourage caste-based occupations, which have been grossly neglected in undivided AP. This resulted in large-scale migration of people from rural to urban areas.Furthermore, Plans are being devised to prefix the names of caste icons for different schemes.
The TS CM has been on land allotment spree to various communities in an apparent bid to win over their support in the state.
The impact of the budget to reverse the migration is yet to be seen. The ideology of KCR might be progressive to the economy, but there is a virtual divide that is getting created which may hurt the state in long run.
