The researchers tracked stark new consumer, dietary, grooming and work habits among dalits in two districts.
This shows that one-half of the places they have reserved for dalits and tribal people are vacant.
Mr Kumar said the arrests on Thursday were made under the Prevention of Atrocities against Dalits Act.
BBC: Five held for 'honour killings' of Dalit men in Maharashtra
In one, where only 3% of dalits had used toothpaste in 1990, 82% did so by 2007.
Similarly the Akali Dal, in Punjab, which long relied on prosperous and landowning jats, reached out to dalits.
Although the caste system was abolished when India gained independence in 1947, prejudices still remain, keeping the Dalits marginalised.
Dalits make up nearly 47% of the population of Banka which is estimated to be between 7, 000 and 8, 000.
Analysts say the declaration of a new faith is likely to be a psychological boost for Dalits in India.
Even her worst critics will agree that Ms Mayawati and her party have contributed to significant empowerment of the Dalits.
Studies have also shown that the wage gap between Dalits and other castes have narrowed and their standing has improved.
Most importantly, the programme is an avenue for the social emancipation of women, ethnic minorities (Janajatis) and low caste groups (Dalits).
India's Dalits (former untouchables), for example, who have empowered themselves through electoral politics, have been suspicious of the campaign's motives.
It won't be easy despite what critics call a record of misrule by the remote Mayawati, an icon for India's Dalits.
At present, 22.5% of college places are reserved for Dalits, or untouchables, who are at the bottom of India's caste hierarchy, and tribal students.
In another area only 23% of dalits reported sitting with guests of other castes at weddings in 1990, but, by 2007, 91% did so.
India's crime statistics show that police registered more than 133, 000 cases from 2004 to 2008 under the country's stringent laws to protect Dalits against atrocities.
And the inspiration many dalits find in Ms Mayawati is impressive.
Christian Aid and its partner organisations are including two dalits in the cooking teams in the relief camps they run - thus ensuring that they are not excluded.
Thousands of protesters from the low-caste communities -- called the Dalits, meaning the suppressed -- attacked road and rail transportation in the wake of the murder blamed on Sikh hardliners.
They see the lives of many dalits changing fast, especially for those flocking to urban areas like Noida to do casual labour, shedding jobs as sweepers or tanners that once defined them as outcasts.
It is no coincidence that states with the most dalits (former untouchables) or tribes (such as Bihar and Orissa) have higher malnutrition rates than those, like Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, with fewer of these excluded groups.
ECONOMIST: Many Indians eat poorly. Would a ��right to food�� help?
He sees the root of the problem in the high-school dropout rate among dalits and tribals, but backs a voluntary system in which the government would offer tax or other incentives to firms that meet employment targets.
Christian converts, most of whom are born as dalits at the bottom of the Hindu caste system, often hide their new faith for fear of losing their rights to state jobs and university places kept for the lower castes.
The Bombay (Mumbai) meeting is likely to see the anti-globalisation activists focusing on Hinduism's centuries-old social hierarchy, or the caste system, which relegates nearly one-sixth of India's one billion population to the status of low castes known as Dalits, or the oppressed.
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