The Telangana government's Socio, Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) survey has highlighted the prevalence of small and fragmented landholdings in the state, with 80% of households having less than five acres.
The survey, which covered approximately 35.5 million individuals across 242 castes, found that Scheduled Castes (SCs) have the highest proportion of small landholding households at 90.5%, followed by Backward Classes (BCs) at 85%.
Contrastingly, Other Castes (OCs) report a lower share of small holdings at 69.1%, indicating relatively greater ownership of medium and large land parcels.
The disparity becomes more pronounced in the ownership of large landholdings, with 4.4% of OC households owning such tracts, the highest among all groups.
The survey also revealed that land ownership has no connection with social backwardness, with STs scoring better than BCs and SCs due to large ownership of dry or fallow land.
However, this does not translate into reducing overall backwardness, with 99% of STs, 97% of SCs, and 71% of BCs falling below the state average in terms of social development.
