Bihar caste survey data out: What it says
The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Monday released findings of its much-awaited caste survey which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute a whopping 63 percent of the state’s total population.
According to the data released here by Development Commissioner Vivek Singh, the State’s total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the Extremely Backward Classes (36 percent) were the largest social segment followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13 percent.
The survey also stated that Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, were the largest in terms of the population, accounting for 14.27 percent of the total.
Dalits, also known as the Scheduled Castes, accounted for 19.65 percent of the total population in the state, which is also home to nearly 22 lakh (1.68 percent) people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes.
Those belonging to the “unreserved” category, which denotes the proverbial “upper castes” who dominated politics till the Mandal wave of the 1990s, comprise 15.52 percent of the total population.
The survey also establishes that the state’s population is overwhelmingly Hindu, with the majority community comprising 81.99 percent of the total population, followed by Muslims 17.70 percent.
Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and those following other religions as also non-believers have a miniscule presence, together making up for less than one percent of the total population. Lauding the Government officials who undertook the gigantic exercise, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said, “A meeting will soon be convened of all the nine political parties with an electoral presence in the state legislature and the facts and figures will be shared with them.”
Following are highlights of the Bihar caste survey released by the state government on Monday.
RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is Kumar’s ally as well as the father of his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, also issued a statement, declaring that the exercise will set the tone for “a nationwide caste census which will be undertaken when we form the next government at the Centre”. Both Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar have played an instrumental role in the formation of the I.N.D.I.A coalition, which affirmed its commitment to holding a caste census at a meeting it held in Bengaluru recently.
Notably, the survey was ordered last year after the Narendra Modi government at the Centre made it clear that it would not be able to undertake a headcount of castes other than SCs and STs as part of the census. The last time, a headcount of all castes was undertaken, was way back in 1931. Those calling for a fresh caste survey insist that a new estimate was required mainly for the weaker sections of the society which, with improved life expectancy in the post-independence era, must have seen a rise in their proportion of the population.
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A day of doom looms over Bihar for this caste census, which should be banned.