Punjab State Commission for Scheduled Castes Chairman Jasvir S Garhi has taken cognisance of complaints regarding the use of objectionable words in questions pertaining to sub-caste category in the ongoing Drug and Caste Census being conducted by the state government.Garhi said he had readied a draft notice to be sent to officials concerned, as the Valmiki and Majhabi Sikh communities had objected to the use of certain words in the survey app being used by enumerators for recording caste data. He said the officials concerned would be summoned.Garhi has acted on a complaint filed by Happy Kaul of Phagwara, who has alleged that the use of certain terms in the questionnaire violated the SC/ST Act and hurt the dignity of the community.The move follows a controversy that erupted within days of the launch of the population Census and Punjab’s first-ever drug and socio-economic survey with enumerators conducting door-to-door verification.Enumerators said they were compelled to ask questions as mentioned in the questionnaire and fear the wording could trigger arguments or even expose them to legal complications despite merely performing government duty.Voicing her discomfort, an enumerator in the Bidhipur area said, “When it comes to question number 31 under Set 5 asking about sub-caste, I feel discomfort while saying the options, as they are demeaning. To avoid conflict, I just ask respondents their sub-caste instead of reading the whole list.”Krishan Kumar, a resident of Bidhipur said, “It is undignified to hear derogatory terms used for our sub-caste. It seems like a deliberate attempt to insult us.”Similarly, Dharminder Nangal of the Valmiki Action Force said the words were unconstitutional and had led to violence in Jalandhar earlier too. “Officials and staff conducting surveys can land in legal trouble under the SC/ST Act for saying such highly objectionable words, even when they are simply doing their duty,” he said.Additionally, officials overseeing the exercise acknowledged that the issue was disrupting the smooth conduct of the survey.Divya P, ADC (Rural), Jalandhar, said, “We have received complaints regarding the derogatory terminology and they have been conveyed to the authorities concerned in Chandigarh. There is friction on the ground where enumerators have raised hesitation to utter these words. If correction is not made, it can create further problems as enumerators cannot move to other options without filling the sub-caste response, making them bound to utter these objectionable terms.”