"When Nitish Kumar comes up with idea of conducting a Caste Census in Bihar, there has to something that is more than what meets the eye. The last caste census in India was done by the British around 1931. Thereafter, in 2011 a Socio-economic caste census was done by the UPA government in 2011 – but they were unable to publish the results before being voted out of power in 2014.

The Modi government was not too keen to expose the caste data collated during the socio-economic caste census. So, everything other that the caste data was released for public consumption by the NDA government in 2015.

Bihar remains caste-ridden. Over the years, this has led to massive politicization of the people of Bihar. Each party has created vote banks that it tries to nurture. Bihar is notoriously known for its infamous caste wars. Hundreds of caste wars in the past fifty (50) years have resulted in thousands of deaths. Mostly, it the Dalits and weaker sections of the society who have suffered.

Bihar remains a backward state since independence. Nothing seems to ever change in this state – things only seem to get worse. In many of the development parameters, Bihar remains at the bottom of the pile. Bihar also remains a net importer of revenue.

The young enterprising and hardworking men and women are forced to migrate outside Bihar to seek employment and feed their families back home. The distress among this section of Biharis’ is maximum.

The migration also leads to stress factors in the recipient states who themselves have to cope with high unemployment rates.

If the state has to look up, casteism has to be set aside. But today, no politician is willing to taek up this mantle.

Thank you for watching.