The caste survey undertaken by the Bihar Government, results of which were made public on Monday, may open the door to challenging the 50% ceiling on reservations in jobs and educational institutions currently in place, as also a recalibration of the Mandal politics of the 1990s, say observers.
The survey, released by Bihar development commissioner Vivek Singh, showed that the Other Backward Classes and the Extremely Backward Classes between them constituted 63% of the State’s population, of which the EBCs constituted 36% while the OBCs stood at 27.13%.
“This survey is an important simply because, it can open the door for challenging the ceiling of 50% reservations currently in place,” said political scientist Ashwani Kumar of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
