| Published on 28-06-2007 In National |
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| Some home truths about reservations |
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Written by
N. Murugan IAS (Rtd) |
Following the Supreme Court's stay on the 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Castes in institutions of higher education the pendulum of protests and welcomes for the measure has swung wildly in the length and breadth of the nation.
This is despite the fact that the central government had promulgated the law only on the basis of Mandal Commission's recommendations.
Naturally this has triggered a plethora of criticism which avers that reservations in education and government jobs only pander to vote-bank politics.
Therefore, it is imperative that everyone concerned understands the rudimentary facts about reservations per se.
No single regime could decide beyond legal challenge that reservation should be accorded to Backward Classes though it is a mandatory Constitutional Duty vide articles 340 (1), 340 (2) and 16 (4).
Article 340 (1) says that the Government of India should appoint a commission to find out the real situation about the socially and educationally backward classes of people, their tribulations, identify and recommend ways and means of their uplift.
Article 340 (2) stipulates that such a commission should enumerate the steps to be undertaken to ensure the betterment of such people on the basis of its findings.
As per the fundamental rights guaranteed under The Constitution, Articles 15 and 16 state that all citizens of this country are equal regardless of their caste or religion. Subsections 15 (4) and 16 (4) deal with social and educational aspects of backwardness of the people and the methodology to be adopted while granting planned relief to such masses under various exemptions.
But, despite saying so much about the relief, the Constitution is yet to enumerate the ways and means of identifying to who are really the really "backward classes" that will stand scrutiny of the courts.
The first commission to go into this matter was established in 1953 headed by Kaka Kalelkar. It was asked to identify as to which sections of the society were "backward." There were a clear set of pointers to do this in its terms of reference.
The Commission was to find out as to who were socially and educationally backward and recommend to the central and state governments the steps to be taken to improve their lot.
When the Commission went to work, it investigated as to who were "backward" within the caste hierarchy under the broad denomination of Hindu religion. If the majority of people belonging to a particular caste did not possess adequate educational qualifications, were employed at an inadequate level within governmental organizations, were at a below par status when it came to vocations and commerce they were to be deemed "backward."
One must note that while there was an emphasis on social and educational backwardness, inadequacy in employment and vocations no economic criterion, however, determined all this because of the belief that once the social and educational barriers were removed, monetary uplift was certain to follow.
If a certain race was under-represented in certain classifications of employment, the sociological rule stipulated that reservations were required for it.
The first Backward Classes Commission submitted its report on March 30 1955 in which it said that on an all India basis there were 2399 Backward Castes among which 837 were Most Backward Castes.
It was decided that each caste should be enumerated during the census exercise to be carried out in 1961.
Social backwardness was decided on the basis of the Varna classification and women were considered to be far behind the men within this broad thumb rule.
The recommended reservations were pegged at 70 percent in educational institutions for backward castes.
When it came to government employment, 25% jobs in Class I Services, 33.5% for Class II Services and 40% for Class III and IV Services were meant to be reserved under these classifications.
But there was an inherent flaw in the findings because it had not clearly stated the criteria for backwardness and had relied only on the basis of [certain] castes.
The central government rejected these findings since it primarily found that those castes not listed by the commission would be kept out of its proposed relief for them through reservations.
This led to the appointment of the second backward classes' commission on January 1 1979 under BP Mandal.
The terms of reference for this Commission were mainly based on the criteria for backwardness to be found in turn the basis of social and educational yardsticks.
The commission was expected to recommend appropriate measures to remove the inequalities.
Members of the Mandal Commission travelled to all corners of the country, confabulated with various sections of society, government servants and surveyed the social and educational systems, their inherent flaws on the basis of interaction with intellectuals and experts in various fields.
Finally, the Commission listed the races that were socially and educationally backward specifying them under 11 classifications which were in turn broadly listed within 3 broad criteria.
I Social Criteria:
1. Castes generally considered backward by a broad section of the society.
2. Castes that depended on physical labour to eke out a living
3. Castes in which 25% males and 10% females got married before the age of 17.
4. Castes in which unemployed women exceeded a state's average by over 2%.
II Educational Criteria:
1. If the number of students belonging to a particular caste within the age group of 5-15 were below the state average of school-going children by 25%.
2. If dropouts in the same classification exceeded any state's average by 25%.
3. Those castes in which the aggregate number of matriculates were below 25% of the state average.
Economic Criteria:
1. If the family wealth aggregates of certain castes were below 25% of the state average
2. If living conditions were worse than the rest of the masses in the state (example: thatched and mud houses).
3. If more than 50% people belonging to a particular caste had to walk for more than one km to fetch water.
4. If members of a certain caste had obtained 25% more consumption loans than the state average.
These were the main aspects that determined the list of backward castes. But the commission stressed on social and educational aspects when it made its enumeration. On the basis of these yardsticks, it found 3,743 classifications that answered to the above criteria and termed them Other Backward Castes (OBCs).
It must be remembered that the last census on the basis of castes was completed in 1931. All such efforts undertaken since then left out the largest denomination of people except for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes since the masses misrepresented their castes and it was feared that the censuses would result in a wrong interpretation of the caste hierarchy.
Therefore, in the absence of a proper census, calculations were based on the 1931 enumeration after deducting those who belonged to the SC/ST classifications and those castes amongst Hindus that were deemed to have achieved progress.
On this basis, 27% reservation was recommended for 52% of the population by the Mandal Commission because the total aggregate couldn't exceed 50% as per the norms stipulated by the Supreme Court. Already SCs and STs constituted 15% and 7.2% respectively of the population.
Thus, 49.2% of the population were said to deserve reservation by the Mandal Commission.
Was this calculation correct?
Given below is the total number of the SCs/STs and BCs employed in the central government as per records available in 1980:
Job description Number employed SC/ST% BC%
Class I 1,74,043 5.68 4.69
Class II 9,12,786 18.81 10.63
Class III & IV 4,84,646 24.40 24.40
Total 15,71,475 18.71 12.55
In short, the number of people belonging to the Backward Castes in the employ of central government was less than those belonging to the SC/ST denominations simply because they had no reservations.
This proves that reservations are indeed necessary for the OBCs to ensure their equality in the society.
The founding fathers of our Constitution loftily wished that our nation's unity and integrity would be ensured if all our people felt that they were equal in all aspects of life.
After a perusal of the above facts and figures, it would be evident to everyone that if we remove the inequalities between the rich and the poor, the hierarchy of higher and lower castes and the differences amongst religious denominations.
Centuries' old archaic caste classifications stand in the way of progress. And the only way to remove them is through reservations. |
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