Archive for ‘OBC Quota’

April 26, 2007

India: Understanding OBC and Quota

Either they support or against OBC Quota, I don’t how many people know what makes OBC?

Why and What are we fighting for or against?
Guidelines for Consideration of requests for Inclusion and complaints of under Inclusion in the central list of OBCs – http://ncbc.nic.in/html/guideline.html

Castes is included in almost all measuring indexes. Which means, if you caste is better educated & richer then Government expect your caste people to take care of you or help achieve atleast minimum. Thus encouraging caste biased society.

Is this vision Government has for the people? instead of encourage society which is not built on caste?

It also mentions Communities- What that means ?

India’s OBC Population
According to national election studies – OBC population of our country is between 40-44 percent. According to Mandal Commission – has estimated the OBC population in the country at 52 percent. and regarding National Sample Survey – reports had problems since Many of the respondents were not aware of their status in terms of caste.

When the question on the size of OBC population was placed before Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh recently, he did not have the precise figures and he said, “I think, that should be decided by people who are more knowledgeable. But the point is the OBCs form a fairly sizeable percentage of our population”. I think, he should be fired for this answer.

Is it irrational to ask for statistics to find better or clear solutions? May be after the survey, we might find 50% Quota is not enough. might required to be 80%. This way, both group can base the argument on fact instead of shying away from it.

Creamy Layer
Politicians should understand that the concept of excluding creamy layer from reservations is now firmly established. It is pointless for them to argue that creamy layer does not apply to quotas defined under Article 16 (4) and Article 15 (5). This is because the Indira Sawhney judgment does not provide for exceptions to the creamy layer principle. The order observed that “determination of creamy layer is a part of constitutional scheme”.

These yardsticks for creamy layer cut-off can hardly be considered unrealistic, considering that all-India poverty among OBCs on the basis of a poverty line defined by a monthly per capita expenditure of Rs 361 for rural areas and Rs 567 for urban areas is broadly at 19 per cent in rural areas and 25-35 per cent in urban areas.

for example – In Karnataka, a family whose income exceeds Rs 2 lakh a year is excluded from quota. Similarly, a family who has one member in Class-I or Class-II service is considered a creamy layer.

But India’s annual per capita income, notwithstanding its billionaires, estimated to be Rs 26,000, thus Karnataka ceiling does look reasonable.

Don’t Change Quote, Change OBC definition to include people in need and exclude cream layer.

Yes, Iam not against OBC Quota BUT against the OBC definition. Instead of fight for wrong reasons, lets us first understand what are we fight for? and who are we fighting against (poor people belong to different(/’s0-called-forward’) caste)?

as Time’s article mentioned – The mandate in the preamble, ‘We the people’, empowers both the legislature and the judiciary equally. A legislature elected for particular period cannot assume the mandate of sovereignty of the people exclusively to itself. Both wings must display humility in the exercise of their powers in order to avoid unnecessary collision.

also for read, Indian Express – A to Z of OBC

appreciate your rational comments in a language which wouldn’t hurt others feelings.