Bihar has become the first state to release data from a caste-based survey. The report indicates 36 per cent of the population are from Extremely Backward Classes, 27.1 per cent are from Backward Classes, 19.7 per cent are from Scheduled Castes and 1.7 per cent are from Scheduled Tribes. The general population is 15.5 per cent. The state’s total population is over 13.1 crore.
The survey also said the Yadav community – the group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs – is the largest sub-group, accounting for 14.27 per cent of all OBC categories.
The report’s fallout, which will almost certainly kick-up a political row, will likely also include calls to increase quotas for OBCs, which is capped now at 27 per cent. According to the data – released months before the 2024 Lok Sabha election, they are now 63.1 per cent of the state.
The report underlines the numerical superiority and electoral influence of OBCs in Bihar.
Minutes after the data was released Chief Minister Nitish Kumar posted on X (formerly Twitter) to hail the release of data on Gandhi Jayanti (Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary).
“Soon a meeting of the nine parties in the Bihar Assembly (including the Deputy Chief Minister’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and allies-turned-fierce rivals BJP) will be called regarding caste-based census in Bihar. They will be informed about the results…” Nitish Kumar said.
Mr Yadav called the report a “watershed” moment and the result of “decades of struggle”. “Now both the policies and intentions of the government will respect (this) data…” he said.
Mr Yadav’s father and party boss Lalu Prasad Yadav also reacted. The former Chief Minister also hailed the release on Gandhi Jayanti and said, “Despite many conspiracies of the BJP, legal hurdles and all the conspiracies, today Bihar government released caste-based survey (data).”
The BJP’s reaction, however, has been predictably critical, with Giriraj Singh, a Union Minister and Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, slamming the caste-based survey report as “eyewash”. “The survey should have been done on development… this survey will spread doubts among people.”
In August, after the exercise was completed, Mr Kumar stressed the survey will be “beneficial for all” and “enable the development of various sections of society, including the deprived”.
Also in August, when pressed on some political parties opposing the caste-based headcount, the Chief Minister said the exercise had been ordered with the support of all state parties.
This cross-party support, he indicated then, included ally-turned-rival BJP. Earlier this year, former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, a senior leader from Mr Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), took a swipe at his party’s former allies, suggesting they “set their house in order” on this topic.
The opposition has pressed the centre for a national caste-based survey or headcount, and this has been announced as a key demand of the mega INDIA bloc; at present, though, there are also divisions within the group on this count after the Trinamool Congress raised objections.
The release of this data comes as the Supreme Court continues to hear petitions challenging a Patna High Court’s judgment that paved the way for this controversial “caste-based headcount”.
However, the court had refused an interim stay unless critics made out a prima facie case.
The decision to conduct a caste survey was taken by the Bihar government in June last year.
The Chief Minister has repeatedly said the state is not conducting a census – of which the centre first told the Supreme Court “no other body is entitled to conduct…” before backing down – but only collecting data on economic status and caste for targeted development initiatives.
