NCBC on Sub-categorisation of OBCs

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    In News: The National Commission for Backward Classes is in favour of four sub-categories of Other Backward Classes which is in compliance with the recommendation of the Justice Rohini Commission.

    Background

    • The Justice Rohini Commission was constituted on October 2, 2017 but has been given several extensions since then. Now, the commission will be submitting the report by July 2021.
      • The commission is tasked to sort out a mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters for sub-categorisation within such OBCs and taking up the exercise of identifying castes, sub-castes and communities and classifying them into respective sub-categories.
      • Article 340 deals with the appointment of a commission to investigate the conditions of backward classes.
    • In 2015, the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) had recommended that OBCs should be categorised into extremely backward classes, more backward classes and backward classes.
    • In 2020, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court opened the legal debate on sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for reservation.
    • The debate arises out of the perception that only a few affluent communities among the over 2,600 included in the central list of OBCs have secured a major part of this 27 per cent quota.

    Need for Sub-Categorisation

    • No uniform benefits: The relatively rich and dominant sections among the backward castes have tended to take up a disproportionately larger share of the reservation pie.
    • Upper strata have Lion’s share: Presently, half of these 1,900-odd castes have availed less than three per cent of reservation in jobs and education, and the rest availed zero benefits during the last five years.
      • For Example- On the one hand, there are powerful land-owning farming communities like Jats, Yadavs, Kurmis who are availing benefits and on the other hand there are  large number of numerically small peasant and allied communities such as fishworkers and herdsmen who have little or no land holdings.
    • Five-year data on OBC quota implementation in central jobs and higher educational institutions showed that a very small section has cornered the lion’s share.
    • Recommendations in this favour: The National Commission for Backward Classes had recommended sub-categorisation in 2011 and the Standing committee too had recommended this.
    • Sub-categorisation is a very simple way of addressing this inequality within the OBCs.

    Challenges

    • Political issue: It is likely to hurt the dominant OBC groups. The regional parties championing the interests of dominant OBC castes are likely to oppose such sub-categorisation.
      • An earlier attempt to provide sub-quotas for OBCs in Andhra Pradesh was stalled by courts on the ground that religion-based quota is not permitted.
    • Vote-bank politics has a lot to do with the prioritising of caste-based categorisation over income-based differentiation to identify reservation beneficiaries.

    Way Forward

    • The sub-categorisation will lead to beneficial results only if the following conditions are first fulfilled:
      • One, enumerate the OBCs and make OBC quotas proportional to their population.
      • Two, ensure that the OBC reservations are implemented properly at all levels and censure the institutions not doing so.
      • Three, increase the number of jobs available to people in the public sector.
      • And four, overhaul the roster system, plug all the loopholes in it and make sure the SC/ST/OBCs get the number of seats they are entitled to.

    Reservation provisions in India for OBC

    • The Kalelkar Commission, set up in 1953, was the first to identify backward classes other than the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) at the national level.
    • The Mandal Commission Report, 1980 estimated the OBC population at 52% and classified 1,257 communities as backward.
      • It recommended increasing the existing quotas, which were only for SC/ST, from 22.5% to 49.5% to include the OBCs.
    • The central government reserved 27% of seats in union civil posts and services for OBCs [Article 16(4)].
      • The Constitution refers to the term ‘backward classes’ in Articles 15(4), 16(4) and 340(1). Articles 15(4) and 16(4) empower the State to make special provisions for any socially and educationally backward class of citizens
    • In 2008, the Supreme Court directed the central government to exclude the creamy layer (advanced sections) among the OBCs.
    • The 102nd Constitution Amendment Act, 2018 provided constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), which was previously a statutory body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

    Source- IE

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