Doms


Doms are a Bengali Hindu caste found in large numbers in Birbhum, Bankura and other districts in the western fringe of the Indian state of West Bengal.
Traditionally, Doms were basket-makers, cultivators, labourers and drummers; their wives serving as midwives.
The Doms were formerly classified as a criminal tribe under the Criminal Tribes Acts of the British Raj.

Demographics

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 were literate. Along gender lines, 58.9 percent of males and 32.6 percent of females were found by the census to be literate.