The Gazetteers Department

In all 17 castes are notified as Scheduled Castes in the district but only 14 are reported in 1971 Census. The distribution of the Scheduled castes in the district as per 1971 Census is given in the following table.

TABLE No. 11

Scheduled Caste Population in Akola District 1971

Caste	Persons	Males	Females	Percentage of Scheduled Caste Population to District Population
1	2	3	4	5
Basor	196	100	96	0.01
Bedar	468	222	246	0.03
Bhangi	3,323	1,740	1,583	0.22
Chambhar	17,432	8,848	8,584	1.16
Dohor	1,085	561	524	0.07
Dom	321	171	150	0.02
Ganda	15	9	6	N.
Kaikadi	1,075	519	556	0.07
Katia	7	7	—	N.
Khatik	2,707	1,355	1,352	0.18
Madgi	3	1	2	N.
Mahar	6,967	3,870	3,097	0.46
Mang	37,531	18,832	18,699	2.50
Unspecified	441	294	147	0.03
District Total (all Scheduled Castes)	71,571	36,529	35,042	4.77

N. = Negligible.

The remaining three Scheduled Castes for which no one was returned in the district in 1971 were Bahna, Balahi and Sansi.

Out of the fourteen Scheduled Castes enumerated in the district, the largest number is of Mangs with 37,531 persons. The second and the third largest groups are of Chambhars and Mahars Willi 17,432 and 6,967 persons respectively. Bhangi is the fourth largest group with a population of 3,323. The remaining ten Scheduled Castes together have 6,318 population which makes less than half per cent of the total population of the district. Dom, Ganda, Katia and Madgi castes together have only 346 persons.

The comparative position of the Scheduled Caste population in 1951, 1961 and 1971 in the district is given below.

Percentage of Scheduled Castes to total population
Year	District total	Rural	Urban
1951	21.04	24.35	9.37
1961	4.70	4.77	4.42
1971	4.77	4.85	4.49

The proportion of Scheduled Castes had decreased substantially from 21.04 per cent in 1951 to 4.70 per cent in 1961. It was the result of a large number of persons from Mahars returning their religion in 1961 Census as Buddhists or Nava-Buddha. Due to the change of religion they were not treated as Scheduled Castes, as the Constitution of India recognises Scheduled Castes from Hindu and Sikh religions only. The combined population of the Scheduled Castes and Buddhists in 1961 formed 21.36 per cent of the total district population against 21.04 per cent of Scheduled Castes in 1951. The proportion of Scheduled Castes increased from 4.70 in 1961 to 4.77 in 1971. It may be the result of increase in district population.

The following table throws sufficient light on the proportion of literacy among the scheduled castes in the district in 1971.

TABLE No. 12

Scheduled Caste Population Classified by Literacy in Akola District in 1971

District./Tahsil	Total	Population	Illiterate	Literate and Educated persons
	Rural
	Urban	Persons	Males	Females	Persons
1	2	3	4	5	6
Akola District	Total	71,571	36,529	35,042	53,044
	Rural	55,704	28,390	27,314	42,202
	Urban	15,867	8,139	7,728	10,842
Akola Tahsil	Total	16,766	8,712	8,054	11,918
	Rural	10,122	5,257	4,865	7,401
	Urban	6,644	3,455	3,189	4,517
Akot Tahsil	Total	9,793	4,962	4,831	7,088
	Rural	7,578	3,886	3,692	5,618
	Urban	2,215	1,076	1,139	1,470
Murtazapur Tahsil	Total	9,650	5,024	4,629	7,219
	Rural	6,834	3,553	3,284	5,251
	Urban	2,816	1,471	1,345	1,968
Mangrulpir Tahsil	Total	6,698	3,477	3,221	4,844
	Rural	6,098	3,162	2,936	4,480
	Urban	600	315	285	364
Washim Tahsil	Total	22,651	11,308	11,353	17,712
	Rural	19,930	9,938	9,992	15,770
	Urban	12,721	1,370	1,361	1,942
Balapur Tahsil	Total	6,000	3,046	2,954	4,263
	Rural	5,139	2,594	2,545	3,682
	Urban	861	452	409	581

continued

District./Tahsil	Total	Population	Illiterate	Literate and Educated persons
	Rural
	Urban	Males	Females	Persons	Males	Females
1	2	7	8	9	10	11
Akola District	Total	22,623	30,421	18,527	13,906	4,621
	Rural	18,132	24,070	13,502	10,258	3,241
	Urban	4,491	6,351	5,025	3,648	1,377
Akola Tahsil	Total	5,030	6,888	4,848	3,682	1,166
	Rural	3,133	4,268	2,721	2,124	597
	Urban	1,897	2,620	2,127	1,558	569
Akot Tahsil	Total	3,019	4,069	2,705	1,943	762
	Rural	2,470	3,148	1,960	1,416	544
	Urban	549	921	745	527	218
Murtazapur Tahsil	Total	3,092	4,127	2,434	1,922	502
	Rural	2,252	2,999	1,586	1,301	285
	Urban	840	1,128	848	621	217
Mangrulpir Tahsil	Total	2,097	2,747	1,854	1,380	474
	Rural	1,944	2,536	1,618	1,218	400
	Urban	153	211	236	162	74
Washim Tahsil	Total	7,554	10,158	4,949	3,754	1,195
	Rural	6,746	9,024	4,160	3,192	968
	Urban	808	1,134	789	562	227
Balapur Tahsil	Total	1,831	2,432	1,737	1,215	522
	Rural	1,587	2,095	1,457	1,007	450
	Urban	244	337	280	208	72

The 1971 Census figures show a considerable percentage of illiteracy among the Scheduled castes. Illiteracy among women is very much higher than among men.

The percentage of literates and educated among females accounts for 13.19 of the total scheduled caste females, while the percentage of literates and educated among males accounts for 39.14 of the total scheduled caste males. Compared to the other three major castes, the Mangs who are numerically the largest do not seem to have made much progress in literacy.

In general, however, scheduled castes appear to be taking advantage of the educational facilities and concessions available from Government. In 1971 -72, the number of scheduled caste beneficiaries was 23,383 which formed 32.67 per cent of the total scheduled caste population in the district.

TOP