Rahul Gandhi said caste census of Bihar has proved 84 percent of people in state are OBCs, SCs and STs and their share should be accordingly.
Rahul Gandhi speaking in Lok Sabha. (Screengrab)
The Congress on Monday, 2 October, welcomed the Bihar government’s move to release the findings of a caste census and called upon the Union government to immediately conduct a similar exercise at the national level to ensure social justice and provide a firm foundation for social empowerment programmes.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the caste census of Bihar has proved that 84 percent of people in the state are OBCs, SCs and STs [Other Backward Castes, Scheduled Castes, and Schedued Tribes] and their share should be according to their population.
“Out of 90 secretaries of the central government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5 per cent of India’s budget. Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India…,” Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.
बिहार की जातिगत जनगणना से पता चला है कि वहां OBC + SC + ST 84% हैं।
केंद्र सरकार के 90 सचिवों में सिर्फ़ 3 OBC हैं, जो भारत का मात्र 5% बजट संभालते हैं!
इसलिए, भारत के जातिगत आंकड़े जानना ज़रूरी है। जितनी आबादी, उतना हक़ – ये हमारा प्रण है।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 2, 2023
Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by the Congress had conducted a census but its results were not published by the Modi government.
“The Bihar government has just released the results of the Caste Survey conducted by it in the state. While welcoming the initiative and recalling similar earlier surveys in other states like Karnataka by Congress governments, the Indian National Congress reiterates its demand that the Union government conduct a national Caste Census at the earliest,” he said in a post on X.
“The UPA-2 government had, in fact, completed this Census but its results were not published by the Modi government. Such a Census has become essential for providing a firmer foundation for social empowerment programmes and for deepening social justice,” Ramesh also said.
बिहार सरकार ने अभी राज्य में कराए गए जाति आधारित सर्वे के नतीजे जारी कर दिए हैं। इस पहल का स्वागत करते हुए और कांग्रेस सरकारों द्वारा कर्नाटक जैसे अन्य राज्यों में इसी तरह के पहले के सर्वेक्षणों को याद करते हुए, भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस अपनी मांग दोहराती है कि केंद्र सरकार जल्द…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 2, 2023
If the Modi government does not carry out a caste census, it will be conducted as soon as the Congress government is formed so that every section can get their right, the opposition party said.
The Congress also said in a post on X that the figures of the caste-based census in Bihar are indicative of the share of various classes in society.
The post read, “Today the country needs such a census so that their participation can be decided as per their population. This is the reason why Rahul Gandhi ji is demanding a caste census in the entire country.”
“The Congress government in Karnataka has also conducted caste-based census and we are always in favour of it,” the party said.
The Caste Survey figures in Bihar will help the leadership address socio-economic inequality in the state.
A similar Census at the national level will help the govt give due participation to OBCs, Dalits, tribals and women.
Shri @RahulGandhi has always raised his voice,…
— Congress (@INCIndia) October 2, 2023
The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Monday released findings of its much-awaited caste survey which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute a whopping 63 per cent of the state’s total population.
According to the data released here by Development Commissioner Vivek Singh, the state’s total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the Extremely Backward Classes (36 percent) were the largest social segment followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13 percent.
The survey also stated that Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, was the largest in terms of the population, accounting for 14.27 percent of the total.
Dalits, also known as the Scheduled Castes, accounted for 19.65 percent of the total population in the state, which is also home to nearly 22 lakh (1.68 percent) people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes.
Those belonging to the “unreserved” category and form the so-called “upper castes” comprise 15.52 percent of the total population.
The Opposition BJP in Bihar voiced dissatisfaction with the caste survey, stressing that it did not give an idea of the “changed social and economic realities” over the years.
State BJP president Samrat Choudhary emphasised that his party had “given its consent” for the exercise and would make an assessment of the findings which have now been made public.
“The BJP will give a statement on the findings after studying the same. However, we wish the survey had studied the social and economic conditions of different castes and placed these on record. We need to take into account the changed social and economic realities,” Chaudhary told reporters in Patna.
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