Overview
- Infosys founder N. R. Narayana Murthy and Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murty filed a self-attested letter declining Karnataka’s Social and Educational Survey, stating they are not from a backward class and that sharing their data would not help the government.
- Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other state ministers publicly rebuked the decision, stressing the exercise counts the entire population and urging cooperation even as they acknowledged participation is a personal choice.
- The Karnataka High Court’s interim order makes participation voluntary, bars enumerators from compelling responses, and limits access to collected data to the Backward Classes Commission.
- Enumeration continues with slower progress in Bengaluru, where about 15.42 lakh households have been covered and evening visits were announced, alongside earlier deadline extensions to October 12 statewide and October 24 in the city.
- The survey uses a 60-question form with 20 sub-questions and has faced technical issues, resistance from some residents, teacher workload complaints, and reports of coercion even as statewide coverage approaches the mid‑80s percentile.