PATNA: The Bihar government on Monday released the first set of data of the caste-based enumeration-2022 that put the proportion of backward and extremely backward classes (EBCs) population in the state at 27% and 36%, respectively.

Releasing the report, acting chief secretary-cum-development commissioner Vivek Kumar Singh said the detailed analysis of the data would be conducted later. “The data collected during the exercise, conducted in two phases, will help the state government plan developmental strategy in future,” he said.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav later separately cheered the state government for taking such a historic step on a historic day. Kumar said the report of the caste survey will be presented to leaders of nine political parties in the state assembly at 3.30pm on Tuesday. Tejashwi Yadav said it was time to conduct a similar survey at the national level.

According to the data released on Monday, Bihar’s EBC population, which includes 112 castes, was 36.01% of Bihar’s population of 131 million. The backward classes, comprising 30 castes, account for 27.12% and the upper castes (comprising four Hindu and three Muslim castes) constitute 15.52% population. The scheduled castes (SC), consisting of 22 castes, are 19.65% and scheduled tribes, comprising 32 sub-castes, are 1.68%.

Among the backward classes, Yadavs constitute 14.26% of the population, while Kushwaha and Kurmi are 4.27% and 2.87%.

Nitish Kumar said the government will take all communities along and will decide the next steps after taking everyone’s opinion on board at Tuesday’s meeting.

Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav said, “…From the beginning, our demand has been to have a caste-based census. But we have had a caste-based survey. The scientific data of the caste-based survey has been released today…We have done historic work in a short span of time and released the data…Our fight has been for social justice and economic justice. So, the government will make an effort for the same. We will try to bring in welfare schemes based on the scientific data…”

Yadav said the government will now plan welfare schemes for the deprived and downtrodden sections.

Yadav’s party colleague and MP, Manoj K Jha, said: “The results tell you that 85% of the people belong to marginalised communities. Today, October 2, is a historic day. Today, the cause of social justice has got new strength.”

Samrat Choudhary, state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, blamed the government for putting out a half-baked report and stressed that it should also complete the socio-economic aspect and release its findings so that people get to know which community was doing better.

The Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has been demanding that the survey should be done nationally in an effort to make it an issue on which they fight the 2024 national election.

The survey was ordered by Bihar’s mahagathbandhan government – an alliance of Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the Congress — after the Centre declined the state’s request for a headcount of social groups other than SCs, STs and religious minorities as part of the Census.

The union government has been ambivalent about the issue, although it did set up the Rohini Commission to sub-categorize the 27% reservation for other backward classes on the grounds that much of this was being hogged by the dominant groupings. The commission, which was appointed in 2017, finally submitted its report in August this year.