The post-Independence India has witnessed denial of social justice to about half of its population who historically suffered social and educational backwardness and are living on the edge.There are 2,479 castes, sub-castes and communities in India who have been notified as Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the Central list of the country. In the absence of Census data since 1931, the correct population of OBCs has not been available but it is estimated to be about 52 per cent of the total population of the country by the Mandal Commission and the National Sample Survey in its 61st round survey in 2005 estimated it to be 41 per cent.
However, it is a fact that OBCs constitute a major section of our population and other than SCs and STs they continue to reel under apathy and deprivation with their representation in Government jobs and educational institutions not very encouraging.While moving towards inclusive development and growth it is highly required to include population of all social groups, especially those who have been left out because of our continued unequal social and economic systems. There are the principles of affirmative action being followed in many democratic countries to ensure the representation of the marginalised sections.
In India with huge diversity and discrimination based on caste and religion, it has been decided by the makers of modern India to adopt the policy of affirmative action in form of reservation to ensure social justice. Though there is the report of the Kaka Kalelkar Commission immediately after enforcement of the Constitution but the matter of OBC has been much discussed in the post nineties with the report of the second backward class commission, popularly known as the Mandal Commission. But unfortunately since its inception, the whole issues of implementation of the recommendation of the commission have been diluted in many ways.
The main dilution comes from various court judgments and decision of the Government for the enforcement of the constitutional mandate and lack of uniformity among the States over the execution of the reservation law for OBCs.There are also issues of creamy layer and sub –categorisation among OBCs that affect in many ways the process of execution. The exclusion criteria followed have a number of anomalies relating to categorisation and ceiling limit. There are six categories such as constitutional post , service category , Armed forces including para military forces , professional classes engaged in trade and industry ,property owner and income and wealth tax payee to whom the exclusion criteria has been applicable.
The income ceiling specified in 1993 was Rs 1lakh per annum and subsequently it has increased to Rs 8 lakh in 2017. There was an expert committee to examine the issues related to creamy layer who has submitted its report to the Government but things have not changed. The other issue is sub categorisation of OBCs into ‘backward’ and ‘most backward’ classes because it was found that a few OBC castes have taken away a lion’s share of the benefits of reservation while many were left out from the benefit. Nine States including Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, West Bengal, Haryana and TamilNadu have already sub categorised the OBCs to ensure distributive justice.
Justice G Rohini Commission was set up to see the extent of inequality in distribution of benefits of reservation among the castes covered under central list and to develop a scientific approach for the sub categorisation. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has been executing schemes and programmes for the development of the poor OBCs in a number of ways for their educational and economic development so that the gaps with other forward social groups can be minimised in the process and it will pave the way for their representation in all other sector.The Ministry has developed schemes that include pre-matric and post matric scholarship for OBC students and special hostel for OBC boys and girls, national fellowship for pursuing higher education, MPhil and PHD and Dr Ambedkar interest subsidy on educational loans for overseas studies, and skill development training.
The Ministry has set up the National Backward Class Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC) with an authorised share capital of Rs1,500 crore for economic development of the OBCs by promoting education through educational loan at lower interest rate to students studying in India and abroad. The NBFDC has been implementing a host of schemes for generating employment and income in different sectors such agriculture, transport, trade and business and service sector through loan and micro finance to individual beneficiaries and also in groups to women.
It has developed venture capital to promote OBCs participation in business involving banks and other financial institutions. However, data shows many of the backward States such as Odisha having presence of about half of OBC population has failed to ensure 27 per cent reservation. These States are also ineffective to mobilize available resources from the Ministry in the absence of dedicated institutional mechanism for OBCs’ development in the State.