Scheduled Castes constitute the socially and economically deprived caste groups of the Hindu society. They mainly consist of agricultural labourers, cultivators of small land-holdings, artisans, petty labourers and industrial workers.
Their geographical distribution provides valuable evidence towards the regional dimension of poverty in the country. The Chamars and Pasis of Uttar Pradesh, the Balais of Bengal, the Meghs of Gujarat, the Mahars of Maharashtra, the Malls of Andhra Pradesh and the Adi-Davidas of Tamil Nadu are all toiling Scheduled Castes concentrated in specific regions.
According to the 2001 Census of India there were 167 million persons belonging to the scheduled castes (138 million persons in 1991). They accounted for 16.20 per cent of the total population (16.48 per cent in 1991) of the country. The spatial pattern of these castes shows uneven distribution. Because of their association with agricultural activities their main concentration is noticed in the alluvial and coastal areas of the country. On the other hand the hilly and forested tribal areas of the north-central India exhibit their sparse population.
More than one-fifth (21.09 per cent) of the total Scheduled Caste population of the country is found in Uttar Pradesh, followed by West Bengal (11.07 per cent), Bihar (7.83 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (7.40 per cent), Tamil Nadu (7.12 per cent), Maharashtra (5.93 per cent), Rajasthan (5.82 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (5.49 per cent) and Karnataka (5.14 per cent).
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These nine states together contribute 76.89 per cent of the Scheduled Caste population of the country. At the other end of the scale are either states or union territories like Nagaland, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep which are devoid of scheduled castes or like Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur Meghalaya, Sikkim, Tripura, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Pondicherry which together provide less than 2 per cent of the scheduled caste population of the country.
Highest percentage of the Scheduled Castes to the total population is found in Punjab (28.85 per cent), followed by Himachal Pradesh (24.72 per cent), West Bengal (23.02 percent) and Uttar Pradesh (21.15 per cent). Besides, there are six more states (Haryana, Tripura, Uttaranchal, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan) and two union territories (Delhi and Chandigarh) which have higher percentage of the scheduled caste population than the national average (16.20 per cent). While the union territories like Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep and the state of Nagaland do not have scheduled castes, others like Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have less than 5 per cent of their population as Scheduled Castes. Remaining states have moderate (5-16 per cent) share of scheduled castes in their population.
At district level there are 88 districts in the country with very high concentration of scheduled castes (above 5 lakh population). Of these 26 districts lie in Uttar Pradesh, 11 in Andhra Pradesh, 8 in Bihar, 5 in Karnataka, 10 in Tamil Nadu, 10 in West Bengal, 4 each in Punjab and Delhi, 3 each in Maharashtra and Orissa, and 2 each in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
The zone of high concentration (SC population between 1 lakh and 5 lakh) altogether has 351 districts of the country including 34 from Uttar Pradesh, 38 from Madhya Pradesh, 26 from Bihar, 18 from Karnataka, 17 from Maharashtra, 16 from Haryana, 15 from Gujarat, 13 from Rajasthan, 12 from Andhra Pradesh, 10 from Tamil Nadu,-9 from Punjab, 5 each from West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh, 4 from Assam and 2 from Tripura.
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The zone of medium concentration includes 41 districts-8 districts from Assam, 7 from Bihar, 5 from Himachal Pradesh, 4 from Uttar Pradesh, 3 from Madhya Pradesh, 2 each from Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra and 1 each from Tamil Nadu and Tripura. The zone of low concentration comprises 64 districts including 9 from Assam, 3 each from Maharashtra and Tripura, all the districts of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland.