Bihar Caste Census data released. Timeline, impact on Women Reservation Bill, all you need to know

livemint.com:

Nitish Kumar on Monday released findings of Bihar's caste survey which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute 63 per cent of the state’s total population. The Extremely Backward Classes (36 per cent) were the largest social segment in Bihar followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13 per cent.

The caste census that was opposed by the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)'s government, comes at a crucial juncture ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, as it could spur demands for similar caste-based census elsewhere is a key agenda of the opposition INDIA bloc. The caste-based census by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar showed that the state’s total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, -Extremely Backward Classes (36per cent) were the largest social segment -Other Backward Classes came in second at 27.13 per cent - 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 -Dalits, also known as the Scheduled Castes, accounted for 19.65 per cent -Bihar is home to nearly 22 lakh (1.68 per cent) people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes.

- “Unreserved" category, which denotes the proverbial “upper castes" comprise 15.52 per cent of the total population. -Bihar’s population is overwhelmingly Hindu, with the majority community comprising 81.99 per cent of the total population, followed by Muslims 17.70% -Christians, Sikhs, Jains and those following other religions as also the non-believers have a miniscule presence, together making up for less than 1 per cent The Bihar cabinet, helmed by Nitish Kumar and Tejaswi Yadav gave its nod to hold a caste survey on 2 June 2022.