I am Vinod Pawar, an engineer, BE (IT), from VJTI, Mumbai. I hail from Jalgaon District of Maharashtra. I have worked as a software engineer with the company HCL Comnet for a year. Currently I am persuing my MBA (Marketing) 2nd year, from Sydenham Institute of Management, Mumbai. I have a tremendous respect for people of our community and want to work for their betterment. Please let me know whenever I can be of any help in working for this noble cause.
 
I have written an article about the population of Banjaras in India.

Our Population in various states and reservation categories are as follows:

Karnataka SC 95 Lacs

Andhra Pradesh ST 85 Lacs

Maharashtra  VJ-A 80 Lacs

Uttar Pradesh OBC 65 Lacs

Madhya Pradesh OBC  55 Lacs

Rajasthan (Now SBC) 45 Lacs

Gujarat OBC 50 Lacs

Delhi SC 30 Lacs

Tamilnadu VJ 30 Lacs

West Bengal OBC 20 Lacs

Himachal Pradesh SC 25 Lacs

Bihar ST 29 Lacs

Orissa ST 20 Lacs

Kerala OPEN 10 Lacs

Haryana OBC 10 Lacs

Punjab SC, OBC 20 Lacs

Jammu & Kashmir OBC 8 Lacs

Arunachal Pradesh OPEN 7 Lacs          

Total Banjara Population in India 6 Crore 84 Lacs

Source: Bhatkya Vimukta Va Tyanche Prashna—Shankarrao Kharat, Banjara Calender-2007, Beed.

Population of India

Rank, State, Population as of March, 2001
 
Rank 1. Uttar Pradesh
 166,197,921
 
Rank 2. Maharashtra
 96,878,627
 
Rank 3. Bihar
 82,998,509
 
Rank 4. West Bengal
 80,176,197

Rank 5. Andhra Pradesh                      
 76,210,007

BANJARAS
6,84,00,000 

Rank 6. Tamil Nadu
 62,405,679

Rank 7. Madhya Pradesh
 60,348,023

Rank 8. Rajasthan
 56,507,188

Rank 9. Karnataka
 52,850,562

Rank 10. Gujarat
 50,671,017

Rank 11. Orissa
 36,804,660

Rank 12. Kerala
 31,841,374

Rank 13. Jharkhand
 26,945,829

Rank 14. Assam
 26,655,528

Rank 15. Punjab
 24,358,999 

Rank 16. Haryana
 21,144,564
 
Rank 17. Chhattisgarh
 20,833,803
 
Union Territory
 Delhi
 13,850,507

Rank 18. Jammu and Kashmir
 10,143,700

Rank 19. Uttarakhand
 8,489,349 

Rank 20. Himachal Pradesh
 6,077,900 

Rank 21. Tripura
 3,199,203

Rank 22. Manipur[1]
 2,166,788

Rank 23. Meghalaya
 2,318,822 

Rank 24. Nagaland
 1,990,036

Rank 25. Goa
 1,347,668

Rank 26. Arunachal Pradesh
 1,097,968
 
Union Territory
 Pondicherry
 974,345
 
Union Territory
 Chandigarh
 900,635

Rank 27. Mizoram
 888,573

Rank 28 Sikkim
 540,851
 
Union Territory
 Andaman and Nicobar Islands
 356,152
 
Union Territory
 Dadra and Nagar Haveli
 220,490
 
Union Territory
 Daman and Diu
 158,204
 
Union Territory
 Lakshadweep
 60,650

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories_of_India_by_population

Our population is more than that of most of the states in India but still we don't have any strong political voice in India. All the states were created on the basis of language then if we consider our language as a basis then with such huge population  we could be a 6th biggest state in India, but as we are spread all over India and not in a particular region we could not make any big impact in Indian politics as we are not united. How many MPs n MLAs and  ministers we have in national and state cabinets? very few,the number will be below 10. There has been no influential banjara leader who has influence beyond his district after Shri Vasantrao Naik (CM of Maharashtra from 1963 to 1975).

Instead of being in one country having same language, culture and socio-economic state  we have been put under various categories in various states.

See what Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla did in Rajasthan, he fought for Gujjars, though many gujjars have died in agitation finally they have got reservation under special category,in which Banjaras are also included, thanks to Colonel Bainsla. The point I want to make is if Gujjars can fight for their rights, why can't we unite and fight for our rights, we are large in numbers, imagine  what kind of pressure we can put on Government. On one side we are fighting for SC/ST status and on other side Maharashtra Government has put the condition of non-creamy layer certificate  for the VJ category in state, where seats of many courses remain vacant in various colleges for various courses due to lack of candidates. Would the state government have dared to take this step if we had leader like Col. Bainsla?

Jai Sevalal! Jai Hind!!

Regards,

Vinod Pawar

MMS (Marketing) SIMSREE, Mumbai

BE(IT), VJTI Mumbai.