Bihar caste survey not done properly, says ex-minister
BJP lawmaker and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday questioned the findings of the caste survey in Bihar released on Monday
PATNA BJP lawmaker and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday questioned the findings of the caste survey in Bihar released on Monday, alleging that there was an attempt to reduce the actual number of extremely backward classes people and those opposed to RJD chief Lalu Prasad and chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Bihar’s caste survey results showed that extremely backward communities — which comprise 112 castes — constituted 36.01% of the state’s population, and backward castes — formed by 30 communities — made up another 27.12%. Together, OBCs — the umbrella group consisting of backward castes and EBCs in the state — is 63.13%, confirming estimates by exercises such as the National Family Health Surveys. Scheduled Castes form 19.65% and Scheduled Tribes 1.68%.
Addressing a press conference, the MP from Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat said the BJP gave full support to the caste census, but it was not conducted properly. “What kind of survey has been conducted? Many complaints are coming,” he said.
“I am an MP from Patna and a former Union minister. But survey was not done properly at my house. In the format, signature or thumb impression of the head of the family is required to be taken, but neither I nor my wife was asked,” he alleged. “After the report came, we enquired about it in our house and came to know that someone had come but returned from the gate itself after asking some questions.”
“If you don’t take the signature of the local MP, what is the guarantee that signatures of the rest of the people would have been taken,” he asked.
Prasad demanded that the Nitish Kumar government publish data on how many heads of families were contacted and signed papers.
Expressing surprise over the population of Kayasthas in the state, he alleged that the number has been underreported. “If counted honestly in Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Bettiah, Motihari, Chapra, Siwan, Bhagalpur, Katihar and Purnia, the numbers will become completely different,” he said.
Separately, two Bihar Congress leaders faulted the caste survey conducted by the Nitish Kumar-led government and calls for apportioning resources proportional to the demographic weight of communities, arguing that the report did not accurately reflect the number of upper castes in the state and that the chief minister should start with giving proportionate representation to different castes from his council of ministers.
In a string of posts on social media platform X after the caste data was released on October 2, Bihar Congress leader Anil Kumar Sharma questioned the integrity of the data collected by government employees during the survey and the decline in the population of the so-called upper castes.
“My reaction to the call for the proportion of the population determining rights is this. It is surprising that as compared to the 2011 census, the proportion of all communities has increased whereas the upper castes have decreased from 17% to 11%,” he said in a post.
Sharma challenged Nitish Kumar to induct three deputy chief ministers from the extremely backward classes (EBC), Muslim and Scheduled Caste (SC) communities in line with the call for apportioning resources in proportion to a community’s demographic weight.
Another Bihar Congress veteran, Kishore Kumar Jha, who has for years argued that the party should focus on upper castes, said the government must introspect why the number of people from the forward castes has been on the decline since 1990.
The aggressive assertions of backward communities in the post-Mandal era and the subsequent lawlessness in Bihar compelled many from the upper classes to relocate to other places for safety, better life and education of their children, he said. Jha said they still have their roots in their native villages. “But they would not have been counted,” he said.
Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan brushed aside such concerns.
“The survey was intended to assess the economic conditions of people of different castes and their share in the population. It will be the only authentic data to plan developmental schemes in the absence of census data, which has been delayed for three-four years,” said Khan, who is among the upper castes in the state.
The Congress and other opposition parties are hoping that the caste survey turns the OBCs into a potent electoral bloc and fragments the Bharatiya Janata Party’s rainbow Hindu coalition.
