Bihar Government begins caste survey in State

Tags: State News

The Bihar government has started caste surveys in different parts of the state on 7th January.

An overview of the news 

• Chief Minister Nitish Kumar clarified that castes will be listed along with the economic status of each family and not sub-castes.

• The economic condition of each family will be duly mentioned in the survey.

• This caste survey will help in taking the required measures for the upliftment of the deprived sections.

• In the first phase, the number of all the families of the state will be counted and recorded.

• In the second phase of the survey to be held from April 1 to 30, data will be collected regarding the people living in the houses, their caste and socio-economic status.

• The survey will end on 31 May 2023. About five lakh people have been employed to carry out this entire process.

• The state government will spend Rs 500 crore from its contingency fund for this exercise.

What is caste based census?

• In independent India, data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has been published in every census from 1951 to 2011, but no data on other castes has been published.

• Every census until 1931 contained caste figures.

• Although, in 1941, caste-based data was collected but not published.

• In the absence of such a census, there is no proper estimate of the population of OBC and others.

• The Mandal Commission estimated the OBC population at 52%.