Scheduled Castes are notified in 31 States/UTs of India and there are altogether 1,241 individual ethnic groups, etc. notified as Scheduled Castes in different States/UTs. There has been some changes in the List of SCs/STs in States/ UTs during the last decade. As per the 2011 Census of India, there are around 201.4 million SCs comprising of 103.5 males and 97.9 females. The proportion of SCs in relation to the total population is 16.6%, of which 18.5% and 12.6% belong to rural and urban categories respectively. The state-wise & UT distribution of SCs in the country as per the 2011 Census is as follows:
20.1% and above – Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, U.P., West Bengal
15.1 – 20.0% – Rajasthan, M.P., Bihar, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Odisha, Andra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Chandigarh
10.1-15.0% – Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand d. 5.1-10.0% – Gujarat, Kerala, J&K, Assam
5% and below – Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mizoram, Manipur, Goa, Daman & Diu
As regards the share of SCs in relation to other the country as a whole, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar have the highest share of SC population in India as per the 2011 Census.
As regards the share of SCs in relation to other the country as a whole, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar have the highest share of SC population in India as per the 2011 Census.
The distribution of SCs across the states are as follows:
Uttar Pradesh – 20.5%
West Bengal – 10.7%
Bihar – 8.2%
Tamil Nadu – 7.2%
Andhra Pradesh – 6.9%
Maharashtra – 6.6%
Rajasthan – 6.1%
Madhya Pradesh – 5.6%
Karnataka – 5.2%
Punjab – 4.4%
Odisha – 3.6% l
Rest of the other states – 15.0%
As regards the proportion of SCs in various states / Union Territories by rank are provided below. Punjab (31.9%) has the highest proportion of SCs in the country followed by Himachal Pradesh (25.2) and West Bengal (23.5%). As regards the bottom five the North-Eastern states – Mizoram and Meghalaya – have the lowest proportion of SC population.