2022 Bihar Caste-based Survey

The 2022 Bihar Caste-based survey was notified by the Government of Bihar on 6 June 2022 by gazette notification after a Supreme Court ruling. The survey was conducted in two phases, house listing and caste and economic enumeration. The data collection for the survey began on 7 January 2023 and the data was released on 2 October 2023. The responsibility to conduct the survey was given to the General Administration Department (GAD) of the Government of Bihar. The government planned to collect the data digitally by mobile application named Bijaga- ''Bihar Jaati Adharit Ganana''. BELTRON ( Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd.), a Government of Bihar agency provided IT support, hired the services of a Maharashtra-based private firm Trigyn Technologies to develop the mobile app.

The Bihar government spent nearly ₹5 billion rupees in this work from its contingency fund (Bihar Aakasmikta Nidhi), Apart from government employees, Anganwadi workers and Jeevika Didi also worked to complete the survey till given target of May 2023. A portal was prepared for caste-based enumeration in Bihar. The digital work for caste-based enumeration in Bihar was entrusted to a Delhi-based company Trigyn Technologies. The survey counted the 214 castes on Bihar government list. According to the list, 22 were counted in Scheduled Castes, 32 in Scheduled Tribes, 30 in Backward Classes, 113 in Extremely Backward Classes and 7 in Upper Castes.

First phase

The first phase of caste-based survey started in Bihar from January 7, 2023, which ended on January 21. The number of all households in the State were counted and recorded in the first phase. The second phase will be calculated on the basis of the data of the first phase. All the data collected in the first phase is uploaded on this portal and these data will be available to the enumerators and supervisors at the time of second enumeration on the mobile app. In the first phase of caste census, census workers reached about 25,890,497 families across Bihar in 38 districts, which have 534 blocks and 261 urban local bodies and numbered the houses. In the first phase, the name of the head of the family and the number of members living there were recorded. More than 518,000 personnel were engaged in the caste census of the first phase which began on January 7. A survey of 14.35 lakh families was done in the district of Patna, left out families can give information to District Caste Enumeration Cell.

Second phase

In second phase of the survey, which is to start from April 15 and end on May 15, people living in the households, their castes, sub-castes, socio-economic conditions etc. will be collected. The survey will end on May 31, 2023. In this phase, over 304,000 enumerators asked respondents 17 questions, including caste. Every enumerator has been given a target to reach out to 150 households. While all 17 questions are mandatory, filling Aadhaar number, caste certificate number and ration card number of the head of the family, are optional. Bihar government has set different codes for 215 different castes of the state. The sub-categories of a particular caste concerned have been merged into one single social entity, and they have one numerical caste code for use during the month-long second phase of caste-based headcount. At the same time, there will be special strictness regarding the registration of names in this phase. If someone tries to write the name twice, now the app will mark such people. The names of people living outside the state will also be registered.

On 15 April 2023, Nitish Kumar launches 2nd phase of caste-based survey from his ancestral home at Bakhtiyarpur. Newborns born from January 22, 2023, till the end of the second phase are not counted. Nitish Kumar informed that once the data work is completed, the report of the caste-based survey would be tabled in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha and the Bihar Vidhan Parishad. After that the report would be made public. The work of the second phase of counting will be done from April 15 to May 15, 2023, in all 261 urban local bodies and 534 blocks. On August 16, 2023, the data entry work of caste-based census was completed.

Anecdote and protests

In April 2023, there was an incident during the caste census that around 40 women in a red-light area of Ward No. 7 in Bihar's Arwal district declared a man named Roopchand as their husband. Some of them even mentioned name Roopchand as their father's name and children's name. When questioned, it was found that Roopchand is not a man. The people of this area call money Roopchand.

In some places such as Masaurhi and Dhanarua in Patna district, members of Lohar (blacksmith) community boycotted the caste survey saying that Bihar Government wants to categorise it under either Lohra/Lohara or Kamar (carpenter) caste.

Legal battle

On 20 January 2023, Supreme Court of India refused to entertain various pleas challenging Bihar Government's notification to conduct caste-based census in Bihar. The pleas against caste-based survey were filed by many petitioners, including Youth For Equality group. Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar said that the exercise is not caste census, instead its a caste survey. On 4 May 2023, Patna High Court stayed the caste-based survey in its interim order, and directed the state government to keep the survey data, collected so far preserved till the next date of hearing (July 3, 2023). Government of Bihar informed Patna High Court that 80% of the "survey" was completed. Patna High court asked questions on 11 points from Bihar government in its interim order. Government of Bihar countered that a central law, Collection of Statistics Act, 2008 empowers state government to carry out all kinds of censuses and surveys, including for caste. On 7 July 2023, Patna High court reserved its verdict after hearing a total of 8 PIL pleas challenging various aspects of the survey. On 1 August 2023, Patna High Court gave judgement that holding caste survey in Bihar is valid and legal. A division bench comprising Chief Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice Partha Sarathy passed the order in its 101-page verdict, while dismissing all petitions challenging survey. The second phase of Bihar's caste-based survey resumed on 2 August 2023. On 21 August 2023, Patna High Court disposed of a writ petition seeking deletion of transgenders from caste list, and stated that transgender individuals can make representations to Government of Bihar to not be considered as a caste. Government of Bihar had filed a counter affidavit to this plea, informing the court that this anomaly was rectified on 25 April 2023 by instructing the enumerators to have three options for gender.

On 21 August 2023, Supreme Court of India bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti asked Central Government to provide a response within seven days regarding the survey's potential consequences and subsequently scheduled the matter for resumed hearing on 28 August 2023. Union Home Ministry filed affidavit in Supreme Court that Census Act allows only Central government to conduct census and actions like a census. Later in evening, it backtracked from its previous affidavit and filed a fresh affidavit claiming that the paragraph "inadverdently crept in". Government of Bihar reiterated its previously stated position that the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008, empowers it to conduct such an enumeration exercise in the interest of social justice. On 6 September 2023, Supreme Court of India bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti posted the matter to October 3 and clarified that it had not granted any stay on the publication of the survey. On 6 October 2023, Supreme Court of India refused to issue any interim directive to restrain Government of Bihar from releasing more caste-census data, and listed the next hearing in the matter in January 2024. On 2 January 2024, Supreme Court of India asked Bihar government to release the break-up of the caste survey data in the public domain, and listed the next hearing in the matter on 5 February 2024.

Survey report

Caste group wise population

The 2022 Bihar caste-based survey report, released on October 2, 2023, reveals a total population of 130,725,310. Among them, 35,463,936 (27.12%) belong to Backward Classes (BCs), 47,080,514 (36.01%) belong to Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), collectively constituting 82,544,450 (63.14%) of Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Additionally, 25,689,820 (19.65%) belong to Scheduled Castes (SCs), 2,199,361 (1.68%) belong to Scheduled Tribes (STs), and 20,291,679 (15.52%) belong to the Unreserved (General) communities. Among the 214 surveyed communities, around 190 castes have a population of less than one percent. The survey also indicates that Hindus make up 81.99%, Islam 17.70%, Buddhism 0.08%, Christianity 0.06%, Jainism 0.01%, Sikhism 0.01%, and 0.13% adhere to other unclassified religious beliefs.

On 7 November 2023, Bihar Government released the final set of caste survey data including wealth and education data, which revealed that 34.13 percent of all families in Bihar survive on less than 6,000 per month. The report also revealed that only 1.5% (or 2,049,000 ) of the state's population is employed in government jobs, while 95.49% of state's population do not possess any vehicles. The report revealed that the most well-off Hindu upper caste were the numerically minuscule Kayasthas.

Key findings

* 34.13% of the households in the states were identified as poor, earning less than ₹6,000 per month. Among them, 42.93% were Scheduled Castes, 42.7% were Scheduled Tribes, 33.58% were Extremely Backward Classes, 33.16% were Backward Castes, and 25.09% were from General Categories.
* 4% of the households in the states earn more than ₹50,000 per month. Among them, 9.86% are from the General Category, 2.28% are from Extremely Backward Classes, and 1.72% are from Scheduled Castes.
* 16.73% of the state population work as laborers, 7.70% are engaged in the agricultural sector, and 3.05% are self-employed. Government jobs are held by 1.57%, and 3.36% work in the private sector. Within the private sector, 1.22% are employed in the organized sector, and 2.14% work in the unorganized sector.
* 3.19% of individuals from the General Category, 1.37% from Scheduled Tribes, 1.13% from Scheduled Castes, and 0.98% from Extremely Backward Classes are employed in government jobs.
* In the state, 22.67% completed primary education, 14.33% reached secondary level, 14.71% attained high school education, and 6.47% hold graduate degrees.
*Among the graduates, 14.54% belong to General Categories, 9.14% to backward classes, 4.44% to Extremely Backward Classes, 3.12% to Scheduled Castes, and 3.53% to Scheduled Tribes.

Socio-economic status of castes

The Other Backward Class category has played pivotal role in politics of Bihar and their socio-economic status changed remarkably after the Mandal Politics of 1990s. This category also holds significant position in social and economic life of state. Analysis of the survey report by some news reports showed that the prominent OBC castes, Yadav, Koeri, Kurmi and Bania were the biggest beneficiary in the post mandal politics of Backward Castes. They also improved their socio-economic status and remained significant holders of government jobs. It was also found that Yadavs with biggest share in population of state at 14.26%, were less represented in government jobs in proportion of their population. In their comparison, two other prominent castes Koeri and Kurmi were better represented. The Koeri and Kurmis with much smaller population size were also found to be in better socio-economic condition. It was opined that this was a consequence of better position of Koeri and Kurmis in land ownership and educational progress.

As per survey, 95.49% people in Bihar do not own any vehicle. This means out of total population of state 12,48,00,000 people don't own any vehicle.

* Around 3.80% people of Bihar own two-wheeler vehicles. In absolute figures, there are 49,62,000 two wheelers owned by Biharis.

*According to survey, only 0.13% people own a tractor in Bihar. In absolute figures the number of tractor owners stands at 167,062.

* The owners of three wheeler vehicles comprise 0.11% of the population of Bihar. In numerical terms they made up 142,689 people.

Reactions to Caste Survey Report

The caste survey figure, however, were challenged by many politicians of the state. It was alleged that the population of certain castes were inflated while the population of others were underrepresented in the survey. Prominent Schedule Caste leader of state, Chirag Paswan accused that it was done in order to reap political gains. It was widely believed that population of Kushwaha caste was underrepresented in the survey. The president of Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal, Upendra Kushwaha also claimed that the figures are unreliable as the sub-caste of Kushwaha community like Dangis were counted as a separate entity.

During the process of caste data collection itself, officials of General Administration department (GAD) informed that some people can be left out of survey, as survey is a sub-set of census and cannot be expected to have 100% coverage. On 5 October 2023, BJP MP from Patna Sahib Ravi Shankar Prasad said that no one met him or his family to collect their caste information and implied that the survey data was manipulated to suit RJD. Information and Public Relations Department, Bihar countered this allegation saying his and his family's data was collected as per norm. Tejashwi Yadav remarked that if caste data was to be altered, Nitish Kumar would have exaggerated the numbers of his own Kurmi caste.

The revealing of numbers of various caste groups also brought the discussion about political representation of various castes on fore. The discussion about castes of Members of Bihar Legislative Assembly and the Members of Parliament from Bihar were done for the sake of finding out representation of largest social group of Bihar called Extremely Backward Castes, whose numbers turned out to be approximately 36% in the caste survey. Several reports revealed that forward castes were overrepresented in the number of legislators from Bihar contrary to their minute share in population. The Hindu Forward Castes, who made up nearly 10% percent of the population of the state had 64 Member of Legislative Assembly in 243 membered house in the 2020 to 2025 Assembly period. It was found that among the Forward Castes, Rajputs had seven Member of Parliament out of 40 Lok Sabha members from Bihar, making them grossly overrepresented. Yadav caste also had large share in number of legislators in State Assembly and they made up 52 out of 243 MLAs. In the state legislative assembly, among the Forward Castes, Rajputs had 28 legislators, which was grossly disproportionate to their population, which was pegged at approximately 3.4 percent. A study after 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections found that most of the Forward Caste legislators were elected on the symbol of Bharatiya Janata Party, which distributed 52 out of 110 seats it contested to Forward Castes.

Follow-up on the report

On 9 November 2023, Bihar Assembly Passed Bill For 65% Caste Quota excluding 10% EWS Quota, in government jobs and educational institutions. The new reservation quota percentages include 20% for Scheduled Castes, 2% for Scheduled Tribes, 18% for Backward Classes, 25% for Extremely Backward Classes, and 10% for the economically weaker section among the Upper Castes. The existing 3% reservation for BC women was scrapped. Bihar Government issued gazette notifications for raising the quota to 75% after Governor Rajendra Arlekar gave his assent to two bills. The two bills were notified as - The Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (For Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) (Amendment) Act 2023, and The Bihar (In Admission in Educational Institutions) Reservation (Amendment) Act 2023.

See also

* Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011
* Demographics of Bihar
* Biharis
* Other Backward Class
* Reservation in India
* Andhra Pradesh caste-based survey, 2024

Footnotes

References

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External links

Official website

Censuses in India