Baseline Survey of SC-Sub Plan Villages for Building Local Capabilities - A Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) Approach

The Scheduled Castes (SCs) are officially designated groups of people in India. The SCs are sometimes referred to as Dalit. The Scheduled Castes comprise about 16.6 per cent of India’s population (according to the 2011 census). The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 lists 1,108 castes across 28 states in its First Schedule. For much of the period of British rule in the Indian subcontinent, they were known as the “Depressed Classes”. Since the independence of India, the SCs were given Reservation status, guaranteeing political representation. The Constitution lays down the general principles of positive discrimination for SCs. National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog guidance, ICAR notified Kotapally mandal of Mancherial erstwhile while Adilabad for overall development of scheduled caste households in a time bound manner with specific budget allocation. As in the Kotapally mandal share of SC population in total population was higher at 25 per cent, while in the district their share is only 15 per cent and only 16.6 per cent in India as per the Census 2011. Upon receiving the approval, the study team of ICARCRIDA visited the mandal and identified three villages for developmental intervention for intensive development of the SC households. The CRIDA team adopted a unique approach called “Problem Driven Iterative Adoption” where in the team has identified the problems faced by the SC households, diagnosed and dissected these problems and evolved solution in partnership with the local stakeholders, mainly farmers. This baseline survey is a part of identifying the specific problems of the farmers and identify solutions in partnership with the farmers