In recent years, there has been a growing demand for reservation to economically poor class among upper/forward castes who are not being covered under existing reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs in education, job and other areas. The 103rd constitutional amendment made the reservation possible with insertion of clause 6 to both Article 15 and 16 with effect from January 14, 2019.
The States and Centre are now enabled to make provisions for the advancement of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) among upper castes by extending benefits of reservation in admission in educational institutions, besides in Government jobs. The main indicator of economic disadvantage of EWS as decided by MSJE is the annual income of the family from all sources must be below Rs 8 lakh for the purpose of reservation.
It is also told that the family owns assets such as 5 acre of agricultural land, 1000 sq ft residential flat, residential plot of 100 sq yards in municipalities, residential plot of 200 sq yards other than municipalities shall be excluded from being identified under category of EWS. The MSJE has introduced 10 percent reservation for EWS in State and Central Government jobs and educational institutions.
The reservation is not applicable to the minority institutions under Article 30 clause-1 of the Constitution and also to institutions of excellence ,research institutions ,institution of national and strategic importance such as Homi Bhabha National Institute and its affiliated units ,Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, space physics laboratory , Indian Institute of Remote Sensing ,Dehradun ,etc.
In order to support poor students of EWS/EBC, a Centrally sponsored scheme is being implemented in the name of Dr Ambedkar scheme of post matric scholarship for economically backward classes since 2014-15 for post-matric and post-secondary students to pursue higher education. But the income ceiling of parents is limited to Rs 1 lakh only. During last three years, funds around Rs 58 crore have been released to 14 States to support these categories of students.
Another scheme named Dr Ambedkar scheme of interest subsidy on educational loans for overseas studies of Masters, MPhil and PhD for EBCs student has been provided by the MSJE prescribed under education loan scheme of Indian Banks Association during the moratorium period.
The Canara Bank has been designated as nodal bank under the scheme. Thousands of students have been getting benefit of the two schemes. There are also State specific initiatives for the development of poor among upper castes in many forms. The States of AP and Telangana have introduced Andhra Pradesh Brahmin Welfare Corporation to support the poor Brahmins of the State for their educational and economic and all other related development. It is an AP Government undertaking corporation established since 2014. The schemes run under the corporation include titles such as Vedavyasa, Gayatri, Bharati to help the poor Brahmin students for education.
The other schemes are Vasista to face competitive exam, Dronachyary for skill development, Chanakya for entrepreneurship development, Kalyanmastu for marriage support, Kashyap for help to PWDs and orphans, Garuda for funeral expenses of deceased and Bhargav for group activities. There are also fund mobilization arrangement such as Krishna –Sudama endowment scheme and Akshya Brahman Nidhi to meet the purpose. Odisha has very less percentage of EWS among the upper caste population. The State Government must facilitate in availing required identification documents for the prospective beneficiaries to make them legally eligible to compete under EWS category following all norms.
It may help the real poorer section among the forward caste population of the State. It is reported by the Government of Odisha that due to non-availability of eligible applicants the Dr Ambedkar post matric scholarship for EBCs has not been utilized in early years of the scheme.
However during the year 2019-20, Rs 430.42 lakh has been made available for 11,670 EBC students of the State. The provision of economic backwardness criteria is also being followed in Right to Education Act 2009 which has provision of reservation of 25 per cent for economically weaker sections residing near the school but it is different from the EWS criteria in selection of students.
The criteria of identification of EWS have been subjected to criticism because of the rate of income ceiling fixed does not match with income ceiling fixed for SCs, STs and OBCs in matter of reservation and other benefits and specially crème layer criteria followed for OBCs.
It is fact that a vast majority of SCs, STs and OBCs are poor, landless and homeless and lag behind all indicators of human development while mostly they are also underrepresented in education and jobs in comparison to the upper caste.
Reservation or affirmative action policy has been followed in many parts of the world including India for the correction of historical injustice against socially discriminated and educationally marginalized communities to ensure their proportional representation as per their population percentage.
It is proved that reservation policy has been quite helpful in ensuring the representation of the marginalised in various sectors and has created scope of togetherness and involvement of all sections of people in different spheres of nation building.
With the amendment of the constitution the scope of reservation has been further expanded to poorer section of our society in spite of their forward caste identity but the benefits of reservation and all other benefits under different schemes for poor must reach to the deserving ones to build an egalitarian and inclusive society.
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