Bihar caste survey decoded: Data reveals alarming poverty, job challenges

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Bihar caste survey presents a bleak portrayal of the poverty situation in the state as the government informed the state Assembly that one-third of the families survive on ₹200 per day, which is ₹6,000 a month, or less. It says 34.13 per cent of all families in Bihar earn up to ₹6,000 per month while 29.61 per cent survive on ₹10,000 or even less. Only four per cent of the total population earns above ₹50,000 per month, with 28 per cent falling in the income range of ₹10,000 to ₹50,000.

Nearly 43 per cent of Scheduled Caste families and 42.70 per cent of families from Scheduled Tribes (over 20 per cent of Bihar) have been marked as poverty-stricken; 33.16 percent of individuals in the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 33.58 percent in the Extremely Backward Classes (that is over 60 per cent of the state) face poverty in Bihar and 25.09 per cent of families in the General category are poor. The majority, accounting for 67.54 per cent (which is 88,291,275 people), is comprised of housewives and students in the state. Also Read | The Bihar caste survey marks a big step towards a rality check The survey indicated that government employees constitute just 1.57 per cent (2,049,370 individuals) of the state's population.

Of these, 6.41 lakh persons are from upper castes. The organised sector workers make up 1.22 per cent, while unorganised sector workers represent 2.14 per cent. After the data was out, CM Nitish Kumar proposed an increase the quota from 50 per cent to 65 per cent and another 10 per cent for EWS.

16.73 per cent of the total population work as labourers. In Bihar, the literacy rate is higher among women and 79.7 per cent population is literate. The caste survey report says that around 6.11 per cent of the total