Curated By: Saurabh Verma
Last Updated: November 07, 2023, 16:58 IST
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. (Photo: PTI file)
Speaking in the state assembly, the Chief Minister said Rs 2 lakh will be given to poor families to uplift their lives
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday proposed to increase the caste quota in the state from 50% to 65% excluding the Economical Weaker Section (EWS) quota. The bill will be tabled in the state assembly on Friday.
Speaking in the state assembly, the Chief Minister said Rs 2 lakh will be given to poor families to uplift their lives.
“There is a scope of 50% reservation. 10% reservation is for the upper caste also. Reservation for backward and extremely backward people should be increased. Now it is 50% percent but they should be given 65%,” Kumar said.
Bihar Caste Census Report
According to the Bihar government’s data, the state’s total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the Extremely Backward Classes (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13 per cent.
Backward caste politicians have long claimed that the population of castes they represented numbered far more than the conventional wisdom based on the 1931 census, which was the last time a caste headcount was conducted and released.
The survey also stated that Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, were the largest in terms of the population, accounting for 14.27 per cent of the total.
Dalits, also known as the Scheduled Castes, accounted for 19.65 per cent of the total population in the state, which is also home to nearly 22 lakh (1.68 per cent) people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes.
Those belonging to the “unreserved” category, which denotes the proverbial “upper castes” who dominated politics till the Mandal wave of the 1990s comprise 15.52 per cent of the total population.
