among other castes than within Dalits themselves. In 2017, Supreme Court of India noted calling people harijan was offensive. Regional terms In Southern India, Dalits are sometimes known as Adi Dravida, Adi Karnataka, and Adi Andhra, which literally mean First Dravidians, Kannadigas, and Andhras, respectively. These terms were first used in 1917 by Southern Dalit leaders, who believed that they were the indigenous inhabitants of India. The terms are used in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, respectively, as a generic term for anyone from a Dalit caste. In Maharashtra, according to historian and women's studies academic Shailaja Paik, Dalit is a term mostly used by members of the Mahar caste, into which Ambedkar was born. Most other communities prefer to use their own caste name. In Nepal, aside from Harijan and, most commonly, Dalit, terms such as Haris (among Muslims), Achhoot, outcastes and neech jati are used. Demographics Scheduled Caste communities exist across India and comprised 16.6% of the country's population, 2011 Census of India. Uttar Pradesh (21%), West Bengal (11%), Bihar (8%) and Tamil Nadu (7%) between them accounted for almost half the country's total Scheduled Caste population. They were most prevalent as a proportion of the states' population in Punjab, at about 32 per cent, while Mizoram had the lowest at approximately zero. Similar groups are found throughout the rest of the Indian subcontinent; less than 2 per cent of Pakistan's population are Hindu and 70–75 per cent of those Hindus are Dalits, in Nepal, Bangladesh had 5 million Dalits in 2010 with the majority being landless and in chronic poverty, and Sri Lanka. They are also found as part of the Indian diaspora in many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, and the Caribbean. India is home to over 200 million Dalits. According to Paul Diwakar, a Dalit activist from the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, "India has 600,000 villages and almost every village a small pocket on the outskirts is meant for Dalits." Social status Dalits have had lowest social status in the traditional Hindu social structure but James Lochtefeld, a professor of religion and Asian studies, said in 2002 that the "adoption and popularization of [the term Dalit] reflects their growing awareness of the situation, and their greater assertiveness in demanding their legal and constitutional rights". India's National Commission for Scheduled Castes considers official use of dalit as