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The Wire
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
Over 71% Dalit Voters Fear Losing Their Vote in Bihar SIR: Survey
New Delhi: Over 70% of voters from the Dalit community in Bihar have said that they fear losing their vote in the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls according to a new survey released ahead of assembly elections in the state. Despite their fears of disenfranchisement, the survey also found that 51.22% of Dalit voters have faith in the Election Commission (EC) while 27.42% do not. The survey was conducted between June 10 and July 4 by the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Associations (NACDAOR) – an apex body of Dalit organisations in India. The survey included 18,581 samples from Scheduled Caste (SC) communities across the state. However, the question on fear of disenfranchisement as a consequence of the Bihar SIR was added only after the exercise was announced on June 24 and 8,500 samples were gathered on it. The survey results show that of those surveyed, 5,983 (71.55%) said that they fear losing their vote due to the ongoing exercise in the state, 1,959 (23.43%) said that they do not have this fear and 419 (5.01%) said that they do not have an opinion on the exercise. On the question of whether they trusted the EC, 51.22% said yes, 27.42% said no and 21.36% said that they did not know. Over 15,403 or 82.89% voters said that the scope of reservations for SC/ST/OBCs should be increased in Bihar, 9.76% said that it need not be increased and 7.34% said that they have no opinion on the matter, the survey found. Building on opposition pressure ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Union government had announced in April that caste enumeration data will be part of the population census. In June, the Union government said that the population census along with the enumeration of castes will be conducted in two phases starting October 1, 2026. Of those surveyed, 33.15% credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the caste census, while 30.81% credited leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and another 27.57% cited former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav. The survey has also revealed that unemployment remains the biggest issue for Dalit voters in the upcoming elections. Of those surveyed, 58.85% said that unemployment is the biggest issue in the election, 14.68% said health and education, 11.21% said corruption, 9.45% said law and order, while 5.81% cited migration. The survey results also show that 47.51% favoured Modi at a national level against 40.30% who favoured Gandhi. At the state-level, Tejashwi was found more favourable. Over 28% said that they favoured the RJD leader, 25.88% chose Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Union minister Chirag Paswan, while 22.8% cited Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. On the question of how the Nitish Kumar government had fared in Bihar, 45.46% said 'good', 48.44% said 'bad' and 6.1% did not express any opinion. Ashok Bharti, Chairman of NACDAOR, said to The Wire that this is the "first survey of Dalits, by Dalits". The survey was conducted in collaboration with The Convergent Media. Bharti said that when the survey was being conceptualised, it was found that other such surveys often don't reach Dalits. 'This is the first unique Dalit survey done by Dalits on Dalits. If any other agency goes to them, they often don't tell the truth because they are scared. We identified Dalit activists and trained them to do the survey so we can get true responses. Hence, this is an authentic survey of the Dalits, by Dalits.' The 2023 Bihar caste survey found that people from SC communities form about 19% of Bihar's population.
The Hindu
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Over 58% Dalit voters in Bihar think unemployment is biggest poll issue: survey
More than 27.4% Dalit voters in Bihar have 'no trust' in the Election Commission of India (EC), a new survey released ahead of the Assembly Elections due in the State has found. It also shows that over 58% Scheduled Caste (SC) voters in the State thought that unemployment was the biggest issue in the upcoming polls. The survey was conducted and released by the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Associations (NACDAOR), a conglomerate of hundreds of associations across the nation. It covered a total of 18,581 SC voters from across the State and was conducted between June 10 and July 4, Ashok Bharti, Chairman of NACDAOR told The Hindu. He added that since the Election Commission started its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the rolls as the survey was underway, one question was put on the survey mid-way, for which only around 8,500 responses could be gathered. Fear of losing vote To the question 'Do you fear losing your vote in the new voter list?', over 71% of respondents said yes and 23.4% said no with a little over 5% not expressing an opinion. On the general question of whether they trusted the Election Commission to be impartial, over 27% said no, about 51% said yes, and 21% said they didn't know. The survey asked a total of 11 questions such as 'who is their favourite political leader at the national and state levels', 'how is the work of the State government under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar', and 'who do they hold most responsible for the caste enumeration that will now be conducted'. It found that while over 47.5% of the respondents said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was their favourite leader at the national level, 40.3% said Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, and about 12% said other politicians. Credit for caste census It further reported that to the question 'who do they credit for the caste census?', 33.15% respondents said Narendra Modi, 30.81% said Rahul Gandhi, and 27.57% said Bihar Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav while about 8% said the names of other politicians. Further, the survey showed that about 48% said the work of the Nitish Kumar-led government was 'bad', while about 45% said it was good. Opinion: The parameters of 'success' in Bihar's poll roll revision Mr. Bharti told The Hindu, 'A lot of people do surveys of Scheduled Castes, but hardly do many of them actually speak to us on the ground. This survey is of Dalits, by Dalits.' He explained that they went through the process of training enumerators to survey SC respondents across about 49 Assembly segments in the six regions of Bihar, namely Kosi, Mithilanchal, Seemanchal, Bhojpur, Champaran, and Magadh Pataliputra regions. Mr. Bharti said, 'We have actually surveyed people on the ground. There was higher trust in our enumerators. Unfortunately for the question on SIR, we could not cover all respondents because it came midway.' The NACDAOR conducted this survey in collaboration with political consultancy firm The Convergent Media, and this is the second survey they have put out. Mr. Bharti said the first survey they did was ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections earlier this year.
