The Indian social system has many layers of inherent inequality. India with huge diversity has adopted a policy of reservation to strengthen inclusive democracy through balanced representation of all sections of people. Though it is difficult to ensure absolute equality in all spheres but there must be a scientific approach to reach to the most deserving ones in lowest rung to ensure inclusive distributive justice.
It has been revealed that the benefits of reservation in Central Government jobs and Central educational institutions for OBC under Central list have not reached to a major section of communities within the list as a handful of dominant castes within OBCs have grabbed the lion’s share. Justice G Rohini headed Commission set up in October 2017 for the purpose of studying the OBC reservation benefits across castes in its consultation paper shared that less than one per cent of the 40 OBC castes have availed 50 per cent of reservation benefit where as 20 per cent of the communities listed in 983 entries could not avail any benefit. 994 entries have a share of below 3 percent. There are 2633 entries in the Central OBC list. The panel has studied 1,00,000 admissions in last three years to Central educational institutions and 1,30,000 recruitments in Central Government that have taken place during last five years under OBC category. The Commission has yet to submit its report and recommendations for a sub categorising of OBC reservation aiming to fair distribution of available State owned opportunities. It is suggested that the 27 percent of reservation will be subcategorised to cover all communities in the list as relatively forward, backward and most backward based on the benefits they have already availed.
There is no legal restriction over the sub categorisation in nine States including Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, West Bengal, Haryana and TamilNadu which have already adopted the practice to ensure distributive justice. They have provided more space to relatively backward communities. Also some States have accommodated minorities within BCs reservation based on social demography. Karnataka has classified OBC reservation into five categories and TN and Kerala have provided reservation to specific caste groups such as Vanniyar, Ezhave, Nadar and Muslims within the BC reservation.
The State of UP is in path of such move with recommendations of Justice Raghavendra Kumar report in 2018. Way back the issue was raised by LR Naik, a former MP and Dalit member of the Mandal Commission, in support of most backward among OBCs as land owning OBCs are more powerful than others mostly engaged in caste based occupations.
The idea is the most backward classes whose marginalisation is more visible must have protection from the dominance of powerful BCs to avoid unequal competitions.
The move of the Government will affect the dominant OBC sections having more access to political visibility but definitely it is going to be more beneficial for the marginalised sections among OBC. The creamy layer criteria based on economic consideration and other criteria have already put restrictions on access of rich and publicly visible sections to such benefits.
The issues of sub -categorisation is also equally being discussed in case of SCs and STs reservation because it has been told that though SCs are a socially homogeneous group based on the criteria of untouchability but the list has not been strictly followed in many States while identifying the sub castes within SCs and it is found that many of the non-deserving castes entered into SCs list through manipulation. As a result, in a competition among unequal the most vulnerable sections within SCs are being deprived of getting the benefits of reservation. The States such as AP, TamilNadu, Punjab and Bihar have made legislations to sub -categorise the SCs reservation with a purpose to reach the more deserving communities. Bihar has made provisions for Maha Dalits and TN has made provision for 3 per cent quota in favour of Arundhatiyars caste within the SC quota. Many other States have supported the move while asked by the Supreme Court and some States have opposed it. It is suggested that the States must go for scientific survey to get the correct picture of representation of various sub -castes in jobs and educational institutions in order to identify the more vulnerable sections.
The States such as Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya have made provision of reservation for specific tribes and the tribal reservation is more than fifty percent because of their demography. Nagaland has made 52 percent reservation for indigenous STs and 15 percent for backward tribe of Nagaland. Meghalaya has separate reservation for specific tribe such as Khasi, Jaintia and Garo and other STs.
Some time back, a declaration by AP Governor for 100 reservation in all posts of school teachers in scheduled area was declared unconstitutional. However, it has been experienced that reservation policy serves as an instrument of building inclusion, distributing public opportunities, and sharing responsibility of nation building based on values of democracy, liberty, equality and fraternity. It is helping to bring different castes and tribes to work together for common goal and contribute to strengthen fraternity as fellow citizens of the country. It has contributed to abolish caste-based occupations, caste-based discrimination in public places through social mobility of different castes and most importantly created equal opportunity in matter of public education, employment and governance.
Reservation has not affected the quality; rather it has proved that States having reservation for a long time have made success in education, administration and governance. All southern States are the best examples in this regard. Though reservation is not a solution to the larger issues of poverty and unemployment but it has created a scope of participation especially in Government jobs and educational institutions for historically deprived sections.
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