View source for Doms

{{Short description|Bengali Hindu caste}}{{distinguish|Dom people}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=November 2018}}
{{About|the Bengali Hindu caste|the singular "Dom" of the plural "Doms"|Dom (disambiguation){{!}}Dom|other uses|DOMS (disambiguation){{!}}DOMS}}
{{Infobox caste
| caste_name          = Dom
| classification      = 
| family_names        = Dom, Bansfor, Malik
| population          = 316,337 (2001 census)
| populated_states    = [[West Bengal]]
| languages           = [[Bengali language|Bengali]]
| religions           = [[Hinduism]]
}}

'''Doms''' are a [[Bengali Hindu]] [[caste]] found in large numbers in [[Birbhum district|Birbhum]], [[Bankura district|Bankura]] and other districts in the western fringe of the [[States and territories of India|Indian state]] of [[West Bengal]].{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}
Traditionally, Doms were basket-makers, cultivators, labourers and [[Dhaki|drummers]]; their wives serving as midwives.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

The Doms were formerly classified as a [[Denotified Tribes|criminal tribe]] under the [[Criminal Tribes Act]]s of the [[British Raj]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Concept of Race in South Asia |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Delhi |year=1995 |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Robb |first=Crispin |last=Bates |chapter=Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: the early origins of Indian anthropometry |isbn=978-0-19-563767-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PwNkQgAACAAJ |page=227 |access-date=2011-12-01}}</ref><ref name="gupta">{{cite book |title=Padabi Abhidhan |trans-title=Dictionary of Family Names |language=bn |last=Gupta |first=Ganesh |year=2005 |publisher=Annapurna Prakashan |location=Kolkata |page=52}}</ref>

==Demographics==
Doms numbered 316,337 at the 2001 census and were 1.7 percent of the [[Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/SCST/dh_sc_westbengal.pdf|title=West Bengal, Census of India 2001, Data Highlights – The Scheduled Castes|access-date=28 June 2009|publisher=Office of the Registrar General, India}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Bengali Hindu people}}
{{Scheduled Castes in West Bengal}}

[[Category:Scheduled Tribes of India]]
[[Category:Social groups of West Bengal]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindu castes]]
[[Category:Denotified tribes of India]]


{{India-ethno-stub}}