The Bihar assembly on Thursday approved a hike in quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Extremely Backward Classes, and Other Backward Classes from the existing 50 per cent to 65 per cent.
Bills providing for the same in educational institutions and government jobs, drafted in the backdrop of a comprehensive caste survey conducted by the Nitish Kumar government, were passed unanimously through voice vote.
According to the bills, the quota for STs will be doubled, from one to two per cent, while for SCs it will be raised from 16 per cent to 20 per cent. For EBCs, the quota will be 25 per cent, up from 18 per cent, while for OBCs, it will rise from 12 per cent to 15 per cent.
The Supreme Court had earlier capped the quota in jobs, etc., at 50 per cent.
According to the caste-economic survey report, OBCs, including the extremely backward classes sub-group, accounted for a whopping 63 per cent of the state's total population, while SCs and STs together were slightly over 21 per cent.
The report said around 34 per cent of families in Bihar live on a monthly income of Rs 6,000 or less, while the percentage of SC-ST families living on a similar income is nearly 43 per cent.
The picture did not get any better if you moved to the next level. Around 30 per cent of families who followed earned only between Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000 per month.
This cumulative data signifies that the entire count of Bihar's households earning incomes not exceeding Rs 10,000 now surpasses 63 per cent.
While comparable data for the current year for household incomes in other states was not readily available, figures gleaned from the statistical appendix to the Economic Survey 2022–23 showed that Bihar had the lowest per capita income of Rs 49,470 a year in the country.
Within the SC/ST population, 42.93 per cent of SC families and 42.72 per cent of STs are poor.
Similarly, 33.16 per cent of OBCs and 33.58 per cent of EBC families are living in poverty, while 25.09 per cent of families in the General category are poor.
Of the poor in the general category, 27.58 per cent are Bhumihars, 25.3 per cent are Brahmins, 24.89 per cent are Rajputs, and 13.83 per cent are Kayashthas.
Among Muslims, 25.84 per cent of Sheikhs, 22.2 per cent of Pathans (Khan) and 17.61 per cent of Sayyids are poor.
On Tuesday, Nitish had said that his government is planning to provide assistance of Rs two lakh each to the 94 lakh poor families who live on less than Rs 6,000 a month to take up some form of economically productive work.
"We have estimated that the state will have to bear an additional burden of Rs 2.51 lakh crore to improve the lot of the poor. The survey says 94 lakh families in Bihar are poor, surviving on a monthly income of Rs 6,000 or less, he said.
He said one of the proposals mooted by his government is to provide assistance of Rs two lakh each to poor families for taking up some form of economically productive work.
Besides, his government planned to give Rs one lakh to each family identified as having no house to live in for the construction of habitats, the chief minister said.
(With additional inputs from ENS and PTI)