Bihar Caste Survey Reveals Over One-Third Household Earns Less Than ₹6,000 A Month

(MENAFN- Live Mint) "Bihar Caste-based Survey has revealed that 34.1 per cent of state's households are poor, earning less than ₹6,000 a month, the Nitish Kumar-led government has informed the Bihar legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
The Janata Dal (United) leader, Nitish Kumar, had sanctioned conducting a caste-based survey in Bihar which has also revealed that more than 50 lakh Biharis were living outside the state in search of livelihood or better education opportunities Nitish Kumar proposed an increase in Bihar quota from 50% to 65%, another 10% for Economically Weaker Section (EWS). While addessing the Bihar Legislative Assembly, CM Nitish Kumar said,“When all this (caste-based survey) started in 1930, then British were ruling the country. Later, caste census was stopped. We have demanding from the very beginning (for nationwide caste census). You (referring to the opposition) should remember that we - 9 parties - mutually agreed that it should happen and then we met PM with our demand”.
\"When caste-based census has never happened before, how can you claim that this caste got more, and that one got less? This is a bogus claim,\" the CM added.
The report acknowledged considerable poverty among the upper castes, though the percentage was, predictably, much higher among backward classes, Dalits and tribals per the report, tabled by parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, the state was home to about 2.97 crore families, out of which more than 94 lakhs (34.13 per cent) were poor earning a living in other states numbered around 46 lakhs while another 2.17 lakhs have found greener pastures abroad.\"Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels 🚀 Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!\" Click here!Those pursuing studies in other states numbered about 5.52 lakhs while about 27,000 were doing the same abroad, preliminary findings of the caste survey were released on 2 October Nitish Kumar government ordered the exercise following the Centre's reluctance to hold a caste census preliminary findings had established that OBCs and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) constituted more than 60 per cent of the state's total population, while the upper castes accounted for about 10 per cent details tabled in the assembly showed that the rate of poverty among the upper castes, at more than 25 per cent, was quite pronounced most well-off Hindu upper caste were the numerically miniscule Kayasthas. Only 13.83 per cent of families from the largely urbanised community were poor poverty ratio was surprisingly high for the Bhumihars (27.58), believed to be the biggest land-owning caste of Bihar, who also dominated the state's politics until the Mandal wave of the 1990s threw up a new power structure Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday sought to discredit the caste survey conducted by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, alleging that the number of \"Muslims and Yadavs\" in the state had been \"deliberately inflated\".Shah claimed that Kumar buckled under pressure from ally Lalu Prasad, who is a Yadav by caste and whose RJD counts on Muslims as core voters of the party.

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