Patna, (Samajweekly) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to conduct a caste census in the entire country and provide special status to Bihar.
He made the demands at the 26th Regional Council Meeting of the Eastern Zone held here at the CM Secretariat’s with representatives of West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand also participating apart from Amit Shah, Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and others.
During the meeting, Nitish Kumar pointed out the success of the caste survey which was recently conducted by the state government at its own cost to find out the caste and financial condition of the state’s over 13 crore people.
He requested Amit Shah to put the report of caste survey in Schedule 9 of the Constitution so that no one could change it.
“We want the Centre to conduct a caste census in the country. We were always making efforts for it and passed the proposal in both houses of the Bihar Assembly. We have also sent the proposal to the Centre and also met the Prime Minister as well but they have not considered it. Then we have conducted a caste survey in Bihar at state government expenditure,” Nitish Kumar said.
Nitish Kumar also said that Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Jharkhand were one state in the past. Bihar and Odisha were separated from Bengal in 1912 and Odisha separated from Bihar in 1936.
In 2000, Jharkhand also separated from Bihar.
The Bihar government released the caste survey report on Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti (October 2) this year. As per the report, Bihar’s population number 130,725,310 wherein Extremely Backward Caste (EBC) are 36 per cent, Other Backward Castes (OBC) are 27 per cent, Scheduled Castes are 19 per cent and Scheduled Tribes are 1.68 per cent.
The bill for a caste based was passed in the both houses of the Bihar legislature last year and every political party has given its consent. However, some individuals and groups went to Patna High Court and Supreme Court as well but after the apex court finally cleared it, it was completed.
The report further said that Hindu community is 81.9 per cent, Muslim 17.7 per cent, Christians 0.05 per cent, Sikhs 0.01 per cent, Buddhists 0.08 per cent, Jain 0.0096 per cent, and other religions 0.12 per cent in Bihar.
As far as major castes are concerned, the upper castes comprise 15.52 per cent – Bhumihars 2.86 per cent, Brahmins 3.66 per cent, Rajputs 3.45 per cent, and Kayasthas 0.60 per cent.
Besides, Kurmis are 2.87 per cent, Mushars 3 per cent, Yadav are 14 per cent. Kushwahas 4.21 per cent, Chandravanshis 1.64 per cent, Dhanuks 2.13 per cent, Dhobis 0.83 per cent, Nais 1.59 per cent, Nonias 1.91 per cent, Kumhars 1.40 per cent, Pasis (Paswan) 0.98 per cent, Badhais 1.45 per cent, Lohars 0.15 per cent, Sonars 0.68 per cent, Halwais 0.60 per cent, Aghoris 0.069 per cent, Adrakhis 0.02 per cent, Abdals 0.0087 per cent, Amats 0.21 per cent, Asurs 0.059 per cent, Awadh Banias 0.03 per cent and Muslim Darji 0.25 per cent.
