Pursuit to divide OBC category into sub-categories
National Commission for Backward Classes(NCBC) is seeking government's approval to divide OBCs into 3 sub-groups. Each of the groups can claim no more than 27% of the quota for OBCs. The groups will be divided based on social, economic and educational backwardness. This is being done to create a level playing field for "backwards among backwards" and safeguard them from stronger OBCs.
Kalekar Commission was set up under the chairmanship of Kaka Kalekar. It prepared a list of 2399 backward communities for the entire country with 837 communities being classified as most backward. It proposed to treat all women as a "backward class". It wanted 70% reservation of seats in technical and professional courses for students of backward classes.
Mandal Commission was set up by the Janata party government under Morarji Desai. B.P Mandal is the head of the commission. It aims to identify people falling under OBC quota based on 11 criteria. It submitted a report recommending an increase in the quota from 27% to 50% in public institutions and government jobs for OBCs, SCs (Scheduled Caste) and STs (Scheduled Tribe).
According to comprehensive analysis by the Mandal Commission, a whopping 52% of the population is OBC. That means close to 600 million people living in the country are OBC.
Mandal Commission faced widespread criticism during its implementation in 1989 when V.P singh was the Prime Minister. The criticism was sharp in colleges across the country. Rajiv Goswami, a Delhi university student committed self immolation in protest of Mandal Commission.
Supreme court stayed the law providing for 27% reservation of seats for OBCs in IITs and IIMs. According to the court, the 1931 census could not be used as a factor for identifying OBCs for providing quota. Reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes was given the approval.
Supreme court rejected centre's move to include Jats in OBC quota. According to the Supreme Court, the Jat community is not socially or educationally backward enough to be included in the quota. The National Commission for backward Classes (NCBC) said that the Jat community was adequately represented in educational institutions, government jobs and the armed forces.
