'34% earn Rs 6,000 monthly': Bihar caste survey gives light on financial status of SCs, STs, other backward castes

The financial situation of 215 Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, and Extremely Backward Classes is detailed in a comprehensive report that was released. Today, the Bihar Assembly received the second portion of the data from the caste-based survey conducted by the Bihar government.

A thorough analysis of the caste survey, which was presented to the state assembly on Tuesday, revealed that more than thirty percent of Bihari families were living in poverty and were barely able to make ends meet with an income of Rs 6,000 per month or less.

The report states that over 42% of Bihar's Scheduled Caste families live in poverty, compared to 25% of the general population. A little over 42.70% of Scheduled Tribe families in Bihar live in poverty. 33.16 percent of members of Other Backward Classes and 33.58 percent of members of Extremely Backward Classes are poor, according to the report.

The Bhumihars, who were thought to be the largest caste of landowners in Bihar and who controlled the state's politics until the Mandal rise of the 1990s created an entirely novel power structure, and had an unexpectedly high poverty rate (27.58).

Although the percentage of the lower castes was undoubtedly much higher than that of the backward classes, Dalits, and tribals, the report also confirmed significant poverty within the upper castes. In accordance with the report presented by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, approximately 2.97 crore families were residing in the state, with over 94 lakhs (or 34.13%) living in poverty.

Status of backward class in government job sector 

Caste survey data indicates that 6,21,481 members of the Backward Class category work for the government, making up 1.75 percent of the Backward Class population in Bihar overall. A little over 2,89,538 members of the Yadav community work for the government, making up 1.55% of Bihar's Backward Class population overall.

Estimated government employment rates are 2.04 percent for the Kushwaha community, 3.11 percent for the Kurmi, 1.96 percent for tradesmen, 0.63 percent for Surjapuri Muslims, 4.21 percent for Bhaant, and 1.39 percent for Malik Muslims.

Status of general category in government job sector

The Bihar-caste survey report states that more than 6 lakh individuals in the General category, or 3.19 percent of the total population, work for the government. In Bihar, roughly 4.99 percent of Bhumihars and 3.60 percent of Brahmins are employed by the government, respectively.

The percentage of Bihar's government employees who are from the Rajput and Kayasth communities is 3.81 percent and 6.68 percent, respectively. 39,595 members of the Sheikh community hold government employment, making up 0.79 percent of the total, while 10,517 members of the Pathan community hold government employment, making up 1.07 percent. 7,231 members of the Sayyed community in Bihar work for the government.

Families' residential status in Bihar

Notably, over 50 lakh Biharis were found to reside outside the state. About 46 lakh people made their living in other states, and an additional 2.17 lakh left for better opportunities overseas.In Bihar, the literacy rate is 79.70%. When compared to men, women are more likely to be literate. There are 953 women in Bihar for every 1000 men, compared to 918 women in 2011.