The Socio-Economic report was tabled by the Bihar government in the Assembly on November 7, 2023. Commenting on the survey, CPI(ML) Bihar State Secretary, Com. Kunal said that the report has revealed a horrifying picture of poverty in the state. The government has put families with less than monthly income of Rs 6000 in below poverty line (BPL) category and on this scale 34.13 percent families are below the poverty line. In this BPL category, 42.93 percent are from Scheduled Castes, 42.70 percent are from Scheduled Tribe, 33.58 percent from Extremely Backward Class and 33.16 percent from Backward Class.
The report shows that the access to education and employment for Dalits, extremely backward and backward castes is still very low. According to the government report, 23.45 percent people of SC community, 16.08 percent of ST, 15.49 percent of EBC and 10.04 percent of OBC community are living in without any proper housing or roof over their head. It is also important to know that these people do not have the land ownership where they are living. They always have to bear the brunt of state bulldozers and displacement.
Com. Kunal added that for these reasons CPIML have been continuously demanding that the government should conduct a complete survey and enact a new housing law and give ownership rights to the land where people have settled. The tabled report has confirmed the urgent need to conduct such survey.
Even most of the families living in thatched, one-room or two-room houses do not have ownership rights on their residential land and they too have to bear the brunt of bulldozers.
As per the report, the land ownership in state was also surveyed, but its data is not included in the report. This is a matter of grave concern.
“This report is incomplete without revealing the figures of landlessness. It is very important to know how much land is owned by which community so that the long pending process of land reform can be taken forward. We demand that the government should also make the land ownership report public and accordingly take forward the process of land reform” he added.
Even today, in the agrarian society of Bihar, the community that actually work on the farm does not have ownership rights on the agricultural land. It is believed that 70-80 percent of the economy of the state is contributed by sharecroppers, who doesn’t have ownership to the land. The government must inform the people about these figures and sharecroppers should be given their rights.
