Odisha finds 46% of state population under OBC category in its latest survey
Mitali Chinara, a member of the commission, said the panel which completed its door-to-door survey in July this year found 10.95 million or 46% people belonging to the 208 backward castes
After Bihar, the Odisha government is all set to announce the survey report it undertook this year in May on backward classes. The Odisha State Commission for Backward Classes (OSCBC) recently completed a survey it had undertaken in May this year of the social and educational conditions of people belonging to 211 backward classes, people familiar with the matter said. The report which has been submitted to the state government has put the number at 46% of the state’s population as per the 2011 census.
The survey was based on a questionnaire on the kind of houses they live in, their livelihoods, and access to infrastructure, hospitals, schools, markets, and colleges.
The survey comes against the backdrop of the demands for a caste census across the country. Bihar government initiated its own caste census in January and it announced the results on Monday which found the the OBCs and EBCs (economically backward classes) to be 63% in the state.
Mitali Chinara, a member of the commission, said the panel which completed its door-to-door survey in July this year found 10.95 million or 46% people belonging to the 208 backward classes.
“We have submitted the report to the state government. The state government would decide on its publication,” said Chinara. As no census has been done in 2021, the panel has also submitted a projection of the total backward caste population on the projected population of 4.8 crore (40.8 million).
Officials in the state SC/ST/OBC department refused to comment saying they were not authorised.
Odisha has become the fifth state to complete a survey of its OBC population after Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana, amid complaints that most of the migrant OBC workers living in other states have been left out.
Though not backed by official figures, it was believed that OBCs constituted 54% of the state population. Caste has never been a factor in state politics unlike Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan or Karnataka. Neither the OBCs nor the tribal and Dalits, who form 24% and 17% of the state’s population respectively, have ever voted en bloc in the past.
But with the BJP likely to mount a stiff challenge to the chief minister Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the 2024 polls, political analysts said the BJD may be trying to use OBC census to do social engineering.
Senior BJP leader and Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan, himself an OBC, has been urging CM Patnaik, to reserve seats for students belonging to the OBC category and the socially and economically backward classes.
The BJP and the Congress have demanded that the state should make the survey report public, alleging that it hasn’t been done perfectly. “The government lacks commitment towards the other backward classes,” said BJP leader Nauri Nayak.
Senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra said, “The (Odisha) government had not made sitting arrangements for the Commission officers and staff for a long period. They (BJD) even did not provide staff to assist the Commission. Even today, they are not assisting the Commission. They are completely anti-OBC.”
On Tuesday, the Assam government also said that it will conduct a socio-economic survey of the state’s five indigenous Muslim communities.
