THE Telangana Agricultural Workers Union (TAWU) raised apprehensions about the undeclared intentions of the so-called Intensive Household Survey undertaken by the Telangana state government. In this effort, the government is going to generate a data base for all the 90 lakh households, about the assets and amenities at the disposal of the said households. Various sections of people have raised objections on different grounds and some even went to court seeking a stop to the survey.

The TAWU found uncomfortable several sets of questions and the format of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed so that it can only capture the assets of the household. It does not have a single question about the liabilities and debt. It is a known factor in rural Telangana, that the poor, in the given context of widespread consumerist tendencies, are accustomed to purchase consumer durables through raising loans from informal sources including microfinance. Some households have raised heavy loans to purchase a housing plot or a cultivable plot of land. In Telangana state, through a joint-lending group mechanism, 16,000 crores worth of loans were distributed through Indira Kranti Patham scheme, thus enticing all the DWCRA (Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas) groups with credit market. The questionnaire does not have a provision to list-out the total debts per household, which will lead to a problematic reading of the data generated through this survey. The survey only seeks information about their economic entitlements along with demographic entitlements but does not care about the outstanding debts.

The TAWU expresses its concern about the possibility of excluding the eligible poor if the government’s welfare entitlements are planned basing on the outcome of the survey. Similarly in the case of housing also, the design of Indira Avas Yojana itself permits a house with two rooms and a small veranda, whereas the survey attempts to use this asset and categorise them as families with improved incomes. Such attempts will play havoc on the lives of poor, TAWU felt. The TAWU has demanded that debts per household also be included in the survey and there should also be a question about the source of money which went into acquire the stated assets and entitlements. This will enable to get a complete picture on the ground.