Caste survey now in Jharkhand; CM says more the number, more the share

Earlier in the day, Champai Soren, who took charge as Chief Minister on February 2, cited a report on caste survey and posted on X: “Jiski jitni sankhya bhari, uski utni hissedaari! Jharkhand hai taiyar (The more one’s number, the more is the share! Jharkhand is ready).”

Vinay Kumar Choubey, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, said the personnel department will prepare a standard operating procedure for the survey. “After deliberations, a standard operating procedure will be made to conduct the caste survey. This will be then presented before the Cabinet and only after its approval the survey will be taken forward,” he told The Indian Express.

“It will likely be done on the lines of the Bihar caste survey,” he said.

Earlier, Champai Soren’s predecessor and JMM executive president Hemant Soren and Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam, who belongs to ruling coalition ally Congress, had expressed a wish for a caste-based survey in the state.

Responding to a question at an event later in the day, Governor C P Radhakrishnan was quoted by PTI as saying: “Everybody knows about the demography of the state. Instead of talking too many things, we should concentrate on development of the poorest of the poor.” He was responding to a question on whether such an exercise will benefit the people.

The developments follow the release of the Bihar caste survey findings in October last year. According to the survey, Extremely Backward and Other Backward Classes together formed more than 63 per cent of the state’s population.

Incidentally, the Bihar survey was challenged in court after it was announced in 2022. The matter is still pending in the Supreme Court.

Caste survey has been a political flashpoint for long with the Opposition parties demanding it for reservation and the BJP resisting it. In fact, in the second leg of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has promised caste enumeration if his party came to power in the Lok Sabha elections this year.

Jharkhand has become the third Opposition-ruled state to opt for a caste survey this year. YSRCP-ruled Andhra Pradesh started a caste survey in January while the Congress-majority Telangana Assembly on February 16 unanimously passed a resolution to conduct a “door-to-door” caste survey.

The demand for a caste survey in Jharkhand goes back to September 2021, when an all-party state delegation, including the BJP, wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Demanding a caste survey, they said in their letter that the backward communities have not been able to make “expected progress” for decades.

“In such a situation, if caste survey is not conducted now, educational level of backward/extremely backward castes will be affected. Neither will there be a correct assessment of the social, political and economic situation, nor will there be proper formulation of policies related to their betterment and uplift, nor will there be allocation of Budget in proportion to their numbers,” the letter to Shah said.

“It may be noted that 90 years ago, the caste survey was conducted in 1931 and on the basis of the same, the Mandal Commission recommended providing reservation to the backward classes,” it said.

The delegation included Hemant Soren, the then BJP president Deepak Prakash, Congress minister Alamgir Alam and AJSU’s Sudesh Kumar Mahato among others.