Sub-categorisation of OBC’s provides an opening to ensure social justice works better. Analyse the statement in the context of growing competitive backwardness.
For Reference - The Hindu
IAS Parliament 7 years
KEY POINTS
Need for sub-categorisation
· Certain better empowered castes among the OBCs cornered the benefits for themselves.
· This defeats the very purpose of reservations as many caste groups still remain excluded.
· Many states OBC lists already have subcategories and the system has, by and large, worked.
· Jobs-claimants mismatch - A vast proportion of population eligible for reservations must still compete for a tiny number of reserved and non-reserved category jobs.
· Reservations to make a significant difference in the lives of the marginalised groups, it is imperative to reduce the size of the eligible population compete for reservation, possibly along the lines of sub-categorisation proposed by the government.
Competitive backwardness
· Different caste groups claiming backwardness.
· It refers not only to more and more people wanting to claim backwardness, but also to more and more people claiming even greater backwardness.
Competitive backwardness Vs Sub-categorisation
· The demand by powerful groups to be considered “backward” based on the narrative of deprivation and marginalisation continues to be a major issue that hampers the objective of Sub-categorisation and at large a threat to reservation itself.
· E.g. Recent agitations of Jats, Patels and Marathas, all of them being more powerful communities.
· Extending sub-categorised quotas to relatively richer and powerful groups without having merit to reservation would amount to diluting the already small and shrinking entitlement.
· Creamy layer concept, which makes reservations more equitable, has also been ineffective, mainly due to pressure from influential sections for frequently raising the income bar.
Pre-requisite for implementing Sub-categorization
· A robust data on caste census.
· The only reputable nationwide data on caste comes from the 1931 colonial Census and some of the ad hoc surveys conducted for specific castes.
· Without having a strong data on caste census, any measure taken towards ensuring social justice will not address ground realities.
