The 2022 Bihar Caste-Based Survey was notified by the Government of Bihar on 6 June 2022 by gazette notification after a Supreme Court ruling. The survey was conducted in two phases, house listing and caste and economic enumeration. The data collection for the survey began on 7 January 2023 and the data was released on 2 October 2023. The responsibility to conduct the survey was given to the General Administration Department (GAD) of the Government of Bihar. The government planned to collect the data digitally by mobile application named Bijaga- Bihar Jaati Adharit Ganana. BELTRON (Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd.), a Government of Bihar agency provided IT support, hiring the services of Maharashtra-based private firm Trigyn Technologies to develop the mobile app.
The Bihar government spent nearly ₹5 billion rupees in this work from its contingency fund (Bihar Aakasmikta Nidhi). Apart from government employees, Anganwadi workers and Jeevika Didi also worked to complete the survey till given target of May 2023. A portal was prepared for caste-based enumeration in Bihar. The digital work for caste-based enumeration in Bihar was entrusted to a Delhi-based company Trigyn Technologies. The survey counted the 214 castes on Bihar government list. According to the list, 22 were counted in Scheduled Castes, 32 in Scheduled Tribes, 30 in Backward Classes, 113 in Extremely Backward Classes and 7 in Upper Castes.
First phase
The first phase of the caste-based survey started in Bihar from January 7, 2023, and ended on January 21. The number of all households in the State were counted and recorded in the first phase. The second phase will be calculated on the basis of the data of the first phase. All the data collected in the first phase is uploaded on this portal and these data will be available to the enumerators and supervisors at the time of second enumeration on the mobile app. In the first phase of caste census, census workers reached about 25,890,497 families across Bihar in 38 districts, which have 534 blocks and 261 urban local bodies and numbered the houses. In the first phase, the name of the head of the family and the number of members living there were recorded. More than 518,000 personnel were engaged in the caste census of the first phase which began on January 7. A survey of 1.435 million families was done in the district of Patna, left out families can give information to District Caste Enumeration Cell.
Second phase
In second phase of the survey, which started on April 15, 2023, and ended on May 15, 2023, people living in the households, their castes, sub-castes, and socio-economic conditions etc., were collected. The survey ended on May 31, 2023. In this phase, over 304,000 enumerators asked respondents 17 questions, including caste. Every enumerator has been given a target to reach out to 150 households. While all 17 questions are mandatory, filling Aadhaar number, caste certificate number and ration card number of the head of the family, are optional. Bihar government has set different codes for 215 different castes of the state. The sub-categories of a particular caste concerned have been merged into one single social entity, and they have one numerical caste code for use during the month-long second phase of caste-based headcount. At the same time, there will be special strictness regarding the registration of names in this phase. If someone tries to write the name twice, now the app will mark such people. The names of people living outside the state will also be registered.
On 15 April 2023, Nitish Kumar launched 2nd phase of caste-based survey from his ancestral home at Bakhtiyarpur. Newborns born from January 22, 2023, till the end of the second phase are not counted. Nitish Kumar informed that once the data work is completed, the report of the caste-based survey would be tabled in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha and the Bihar Vidhan Parishad. After that the report would be made public. The work of the second phase of counting will be done from April 15 to May 15, 2023, in all 261 urban local bodies and 534 blocks. On August 16, 2023, the data entry work of the caste-based census was completed.
List of 17 questions in second phase S.no Question 1 Full name of family member 2 Father's / husband's name 3 Relation to the head of the family 4 Age (in years) 5 Gender 6 Marital status 7 Religion 8 Caste 9 Temporary migration status (place of work or study, whether within or outside state, country or abroad) 10 Educational qualifications (pre-primary to post master's degree) 11 Profession (ranges from government to private job in organised or unorganised sector, self-employed, farmer [owner of farm land], agricultural labourer, construction labourer, other labourer, skilled labourer, beggar, rag-picker, student, housewife to those having no work) 12 Ownership of computer/laptop (with or without internet connectivity) 13 Motor vehicle (two-wheeler, three-wheeler, four-wheeler, six-wheeler or more, tractor) 14 Agricultural land (area from 0-50 decimals to 5 acres and above) 15 Residential land (area from 5 decimals land to 20 decimals and above; flat owner in a multi-storied apartment) 16 Monthly income from all sources(ranging from a minimum 0- 6,000 to a maximum 50,000 and above) 17 Residential condition (pucca/thatched house, hutment or homeless)
Anecdote and protests In April 2023, there was an incident during the caste census; around 40 women in a red-light area of Ward No. 7 in Bihar's Arwal district declared a man named Roopchand as their husband. Some of them even mentioned name Roopchand as their father's name and children's name. When questioned, it was found that Roopchand is not a man. The people of this area call money as Roopchand.
In some places such as Masaurhi and Dhanarua in Patna district, members of Lohar (blacksmith) community boycotted the caste survey saying that Bihar Government wants to categorise it under either Lohra/Lohara or Kamar (carpenter) caste.
Legal battle On 20 January 2023, the Supreme Court of India refused to entertain various pleas challenging Bihar Government's notification to conduct caste-based census in Bihar. The pleas against caste-based survey were filed by many petitioners, including Youth For Equality group. Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar said that the exercise is not caste census, instead its a caste survey. On 4 May 2023, Patna High Court stayed the caste-based survey in its interim order, and directed the state government to keep the survey data, collected so far preserved till the next date of hearing (July 3, 2023). Government of Bihar informed Patna High Court that 80% of the "survey" was completed. Patna High court asked questions on 11 points from Bihar government in its interim order. Government of Bihar countered that a central law, Collection of Statistics Act, 2008 empowers state government to carry out all kinds of censuses and surveys, including for caste. On 7 July 2023, Patna High court reserved its verdict after hearing a total of 8 PIL pleas challenging various aspects of the survey. On 1 August 2023, Patna High Court gave judgement that holding caste survey in Bihar is valid and legal. A division bench comprising Chief Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice Partha Sarathy passed the order in its 101-page verdict, while dismissing all petitions challenging survey. The second phase of Bihar's caste-based survey resumed on 2 August 2023. On 21 August 2023, Patna High Court disposed of a writ petition, submitted by Reshma Prasad, seeking deletion of transgender people from caste list, and stated that transgender individuals can make representations to Government of Bihar to not be considered as a caste. Government of Bihar had filed a counter affidavit to this plea, informing the court that this anomaly was rectified on 25 April 2023 by instructing the enumerators to have three options for gender.
On 21 August 2023, Supreme Court of India bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti asked Central Government to provide a response within seven days regarding the survey's potential consequences and subsequently scheduled the matter for resumed hearing on 28 August 2023. Union Home Ministry filed affidavit in Supreme Court that Census Act allows only Central government to conduct census and actions like a census. Later in evening, it backtracked from its previous affidavit and filed a fresh affidavit claiming that the paragraph "inadverdently crept in". Government of Bihar reiterated its previously stated position that the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008, empowers it to conduct such an enumeration exercise in the interest of social justice. On 6 September 2023, Supreme Court of India bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti posted the matter to October 3 and clarified that it had not granted any stay on the publication of the survey. On 6 October 2023, Supreme Court of India refused to issue any interim directive to restrain Government of Bihar from releasing more caste-census data, and listed the next hearing in the matter in January 2024. On 2 January 2024, Supreme Court of India asked Bihar government to release the break-up of the caste survey data in the public domain, and listed the next hearing in the matter on 5 February 2024.
The findings of the survey increased the overall reservation to 65%, which was eventually struck down by the Patna High Court on 20 June 2024.
Survey report
+ Primary Survey AbstractCategoryCommunity rowspan="3" Total householdsTotal populationHousehold monthly incomeEducationEmployment colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="2" General 4 3 10% 23.98% 19.27% 16.95% 9.86% 3.49% BC 30 4 12% 29.35% 18.42% 10.67% 4.22% 1.13% EBC 82 31 18% 32.56% 18.82% 8.32% 2.28% 0.98%0.73% SC 22 16% 29.44% 15.32% 5.9% 1.72% 1.13%0.51% ST 32 1% 25.8% 16.97% 8% 2.53% 0.68% Unspecified 1 22.9%18.7% 17.0% 12.5% State 215 50% 27,668,930 130,725,310 29.61% 18.06% 9.83% 3.9% 1.22%
Caste group wise population
The 2022 Bihar caste-based survey report, released on October 2, 2023, reveals a total population of 130,725,310. Among them, 35,463,936 (27.12%) belong to Backward Classes (BCs), 47,080,514 (36.01%) belong to Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), collectively constituting 82,544,450 (63.14%) of Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Additionally, 25,689,820 (19.65%) belong to Scheduled Castes (SCs), 2,199,361 (1.68%) belong to Scheduled Tribes (STs), and 20,291,679 (15.52%) belong to the Unreserved (General) communities. Among the 214 (excluding one category, "Others", which enumerates people who do not belong to any of the predefined 214 community list) surveyed communities, around 190 castes have a population of less than one percent. The survey also indicates that Hindus make up 81.99%, Islam 17.70%, Buddhism 0.08%, Christianity 0.06%, Jainism 0.01%, Sikhism 0.01%, and 0.13% adhere to other unclassified religious beliefs.