The bill was aimed at granting 5% quota in government jobs and educational institutes to Gujjars and four other communities (Banjaras, Gadia Lohars, Raikas and Gadaria)
The bill seeks to increase the backward classes' reservation from the present 21% (for OBC) to 26% with five per cent reservation to Gujjar and other four communities.
The statement on the objective and reasons of the bill stated that the five castes are most backward and hence require five per cent separate reservation.
It also mentions that the central government recently passed the 103rd amendment bill, providing 10% reservation to the economically weaker sections among the upper castes, which effectively breaches the 50% limit set for reservations by the Supreme Court.
How does the demand for reservations evolve?
In Rajasthan, the Gujjar community is currently eligible for reservations as an OBC community.
They had in the mid- and late-2000s agitated for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe category, in keeping with the way they are classified in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
This demand was denied because tribal status, as defined in the Constitution’s Fifth Schedule, involves identifiable characteristics such as lifestyle, culture, inaccessibility and backwardness, and not just economic underdevelopment.
Since then, they have been demanding reservations under a separate backward class category.
They argue that inclusion of Jats in the OBC list has crowded Gujjars out of the benefits of reservations.
Hence, they demand that reservations be given over and above the existing 21% set aside for Other Backward Classes in the State.
However, the additional quota would take the quantum of reservation above the 50% limit set by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney judgment.
Thus, despite the state bringing multiple legislations accepting their demands, they have been struck down by the supreme court.
What are the concerns?
Multiple commissions appointed by State governments have recommended the implementation of the 5% quota on the basis of the community’s “extreme” or “most” backward nature.
But the lack of adequate data in the absence of a proper socio-economic caste census to prove this has led to the policy’s undoing in judicial orders.
Also, the repeated agitations reveal the shortfall in adequate, gainful and secure job opportunities in States such as Rajasthan.
Along with that, the passage of the recent bill was justified by the State government by explicitly referring to the 103rd amendment.
However, it remains to be seen whether the 103rd Amendment will protect the new quota for Gujjars in Rajasthan.
