Pod (caste)


The Pod are a scheduled caste from India.
In Odisha and West Bengal, they are a scheduled caste.
Pod castes of Bengali community displaced from erstwhile East Pakistan have been accorded the status of Scheduled Castes in the State of West Bengal.
The Pod developed a sense of self‐respect by announcing a ‘self identity’.
There were 2,216,513 of them in West Bengal in 2001.
The sex ratio within the 0–6 age group at the census was below state average concerning girls.
The literacy rate was 72.1, the male one 83.5 and the female one 59.9.
There is a clear Hindu majority. Their main-subcastes are or used to be the Chasi Pod, the Mecho Pod, the Tanti Pod and the Dhamna Pod. The differentiation between seems to have its origin in the occupations.
The Pod also are divided into groups like Dhulepure, Bajitpure, Baruni, Medinipur and Sadpure.
They are divided in a number of clans.
Pod is used as a derogatory term for East Bengalis.
Probably they are of tribal origin.
In 1911, among the girls from 5 to 11, 35.7 % were married or widowed.
At least in the 1911 census, they were more than 5 lakh Pod, many were cultivators or fishermen.
There is a significant involvement of this group in the informal economy of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area.