Nitish Kumar Suggests Raising Quotas In Bihar To 75%

42% from Scheduled Castes, 25% from General poor, Bihar caste survey shows

The full report describing the economic condition of 215 Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and Extremely Backward Classes and the second part of the data from the Bihar government’s caste-based survey was tabled in the Bihar Assembly

According to the report, over 42 per cent of Bihar families from Scheduled Castes are poor while 25 per cent of people from General category are poor. About 42.70 per cent of Bihar families from Scheduled Tribe are poor.

The report highlighted that 33.16 per cent of people from Other Backward Classes and 33.58 per cent people in Extremely Backward Classes are poor.

The poverty ratio was surprisingly high for the Bhumihars (27.58), believed to be the biggest land-owning caste of Bihar, who also dominated the state’s politics until the Mandal wave of the 1990s threw up a new power structure.

According to the Bihar-caste survey report, over 6 lakh people from the General category have government jobs, which amounts to 3.19 per cent of the total population.

About 4.99 per cent of Bhumihars in Bihar have government jobs while 3.60 per cent of Brahmins in Bihar are in government jobs.

People in government jobs from Rajput and Kayasth communities in Bihar comprise 3.81 per cent and 6.68 per cent respectively.

The Sheikh community has a share of 39,595 people in government jobs, which is 0.79 per cent, while the Pathan community has a share of 10,517 individuals in government jobs, which amounts to 1.07 per cent.

Out of the total Sayyed community in Bihar, 7,231 people are in government jobs.

According to the Bihar-caste survey report, 6,21,481 people from the Backward Class category have government jobs, which amount to 1.75 per cent of the total Backward Class population in Bihar.

Around 2,89,538 people from the Yadav community have government jobs which amounts to 1.55 per cent of the total Backward Class population in Bihar.

Around 2.04 per cent of the Kushwaha community, 3.11 per cent of the Kurmi, 1.96 per cent of Tradesman, 0.63 per cent of Surjapuri Muslims, 4.21 per cent Bhaant and 1.39 per cent of Malik Muslims have government jobs.

Another important finding was that more than 50 lakh Biharis lived outside the state. Those earning a living in other states numbered around 46 lakhs while another 2.17 lakhs have found greener pastures abroad.

Those pursuing studies in other states numbered about 5.52 lakhs while about 27,000 were doing the same.

Notably, preliminary findings of the caste survey were released on October 2.

The Nitish Kumar government ordered the exercise following the Centre’s reluctance to hold a caste census.

The preliminary findings established that OBCs and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) constituted more than 60 per cent of the state’s total population, while the upper castes accounted for about 10 per cen