Caste-based headcount in Bihar to benefit all: Nitish Kumar

PATNA: Soon after launching the caste-based survey from Vaishali district’s Harser village, CM Nitish Kumar on Saturday said data related to people’s economic status would also be collected during the forthcoming caste-based headcount so that the state government could know how many people are poor across the state and what sort of steps should be taken to bring them in the mainstream.
People would be hugely benefited after the recognition of their economic status, either they belong to upper caste, backward caste, Dalit or Mahadalit categories, Nitish said in written statement issued from his office on Saturday.
The CM had reached Harser village in Goraul block of Vaishali district as part of his ‘Samadhan Yatra’. He visited the house of one Manoj Paswan there and formally launched the survey. He spoke to Paswan as well as the employees engaged in the exercise.
The first phase of survey will count houses and mention family heads, etc while in the second phase, the surveyors will do headcount and collect information about caste and economic status of a family and its individual members, an official said.
Responding to media queries, Nitish said, “I have advised the employees to note every detail of a family in a proper manner. If a person has a house in Bihar but he/she lives outside the state, the enumerators will gather details from the neighbours and make entry in the survey.”
The CM said the final report of the caste-based headcount would be sent to the Centre also, so that they could see how Bihar government completed the exercise. He also said his government decided to conduct the caste-based survey with the consent of all political parties after the Centre refused to do it but allowed the state government to conduct its own survey.
Earlier, on August 23, 2021, an 11-member all-party delegation from Bihar led by CM Nitish had called on PM Narendra Modi with the demand for caste-wise census across the country during the Census-2021.
Bihar assembly had unanimously passed a resolution on February 18, 2019 and again on February 27, 2020, demanding caste-wise enumeration of population. Both the resolutions were sent to the Centre with a request to hold caste-wise enumeration of population during the Census-2021.