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Dom | |
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![]() A Dom man, early 1860s | |
Classification | A medium-skinned mustachioed man wearing a turban and a kurta |
Religions | Hinduism |
Languages | Bengali |
Populated states | West Bengal |
Population | 316,337 (2001 census) |
Family names | Dom, Bansfor, Malik |
Doms are a Bengali Hindu caste found in the Indian state of West Bengal.
The Doms were formerly classified as a criminal tribe under the Criminal Tribes Acts of the British Raj.[1][2]
Doms numbered 316,337 at the 2001 census and were 1.7 percent of the scheduled caste population of West Bengal. The same census found overall 46.0 percent of Doms (aged 7 and up) were literate. Along gender lines, 58.9 percent of males and 32.6 percent of females were found by the census to be literate.[3]