Nitish hopes Bihar survey will provide impetus for nationwide caste census

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday expressed confidence that the caste survey conducted by his government, findings of which were released on Monday, will provide an impetus for a nationwide census of all social groups.

Kumar claimed that he had been raising the demand for a nationwide headcount of castes since 1989 when he first became a member of Parliament.

The JD(U) leader took potshots at the Narendra Modi government for failure to ”conduct even a normal census, which should have taken place in 2021 itself”.

“Tomorrow, at 3.30 pm, I will hold a meeting where a presentation on the findings of the survey will be made before representatives of all nine parties, which have a presence in the state legislature, and which had given the consent for the survey,” Kumar told reporters.

His government had ordered the mammoth exercise in June last year.

Kumar agreed with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s contention that, as the survey has established that OBCs, SCs and STs together account for 84 per cent of Bihar’s population, it is essential to know the caste data of the entire country.

The chief minister said, “Yes, the survey has provided an estimate of the population of all sections of the society, many of which were not counted during the census. It has also come out with a fresh estimate of the Scheduled Castes. We can see a slight increase in their population compared with a decade ago”.

He, however, ducked queries about whether the survey would prove to be “Mandal part 2”, triggering demands for revised quotas for different castes in proportion to their respective population, which may spell trouble for the “Hindutva” juggernaut of the BJP, which is seen as primarily pro-upper caste.

“It would not be proper for me to go into such details right now. Let me share the findings with all parties tomorrow. After that, our focus will be on making policies targeted at castes which may be deemed to be in need of greater assistance. I must add, the survey will benefit all castes, without exception,” asserted the longest-serving chief minister of the state.

He was also asked what he thought of the Modi government’s schemes like “Vishwakarma”, meant for artisans who primarily belong to the extremely backward classes.

“I do not care what schemes they are coming up with”, quipped Kumar, who had been a BJP ally till a year ago.

“I would like to ask why have they not considered recognising the extremely backward classes as a separate category. We did it in Bihar long back. The results are there for all to see. They seem to care for nobody, neither any caste group nor Hindus or Muslims as a whole”, said Kumar.

Notably, the EBCs, known as “ati picchra” in local parlance, have emerged as the largest social block in the survey, which puts their number at 4.71 crore, about 36.01 per cent of the state’s total population.

Divided into several politically disorganised small castes, the EBCs are known to have been among the most committed supporters of Kumar, who, incidentally, is a Kurmi, a relatively better-off OBC group which comprises only 2.87 per cent of the total population.

“I do not want to react, at present, to the takes of different political groups on this survey. But my position remains unchanged that the country needs a caste census, which was held for the last time in 1931. Bihar has set an example”, said Kumar.

He had led an all-party delegation a couple of years ago which met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press the demand for a caste census.