...But Who are the OBCs?

It is surprising - or perhaps not so, given the "uneducated literacy" in the country - that a large number of people on either side of the reservation debate have little idea about the definition of OBCs.

This results in, e.g., a false debate on whether the reservations should be based on "economic criteria" or "caste".

Most people don't know - or care to find out that the very definition of OBCs, however, was/is not based on genetic heredity. Rather, it is based on multiple criteria which consider not just the social (or caste-based) deprivation, but also on educational and economic deprivation...

According to Mandal Commission, the backward Castes/Classes were defined on the following 11 criteria:

1. Social
• Castes/classes considered as socially backward by others.
• Castes/classes which mainly depend on manual labour for their livelihood.
• Castes/classes where the percentage of married women below 17 is 25% above the state average in rural areas and 10% in urban areas; and that of married men is 10% and 5% above the state average in rural and urban areas respectively.
• Castes/classes where participation of females in work is at least 25% above the state average.
2. Educational
• Castes/classes where the number of children in the age group of 5 to 15 years who never attended school is at least 25% above the state average.
• Castes/classes where the rate of student drop-out in the age group of 5-15 years is at least 25% above the state average.
• Castes/classes amongst whom the proportion of matriculates is at least 25% below the state average.
3. Economic
   • Castes/classes where the average value of family assets is at least 25% below the state average.
   • Castes/classes where the number of families living in kachcha houses is at least 25 % above the state average.
   • Castes/classes where the source of drinking water is beyond half a kilometer for more than 50% of the households.
   • Castes/classes where the number of the house-holds having taken a consumption loan is at least 25% above the state average.

The National Commission for Backward Classes, after studying the criteria/indicators framed by the Mandal commission and the commissions set up in the past by different state Governments and other relevant materials, formulated the following guidelines for considering requests for inclusion in the list of Other Backward Classes:

1. Social
   • Castes and communities, generally considered as socially backward.
   • Castes and communities, which mainly depend on agricultural and/or other manual labour for their livelihood and are lacking any significant resource base.
   • Castes and communities, which, for their livelihood, mainly depend on agricultural and/or other manual labour for wage and are lacking any significant base.
   • Castes and communities, the women of which, as a general practice, are for their family's livelihood, engaged in agricultural and/or other manual labour, for wage.
   • Castes and communities, the children of which, as a general practice, are, for family's livelihood or for supplementing family's low income, mainly engaged in agricultural and/or manual labour.
   • Castes and communities, which in terms of caste system, are identified with traditional crafts or traditional or hereditary occupations considered to be lowly or undignified.
   • Castes and communities, which in terms of the caste system, are identified with tradtional or hereditary occupations considered to be 'unclean' or stigmatised.
   • Nomadic and semi-nomadic castes and communities.
   • Denotified or Vimukta Jati castes and communities.
   • Castes and communities, having no representation or poor representation in the State Legislative Assembly and/or district-level Panchayati Raj institutions during the ten years preceding the date of the application. (The term "poor representation" may be taken to refer to a caste or community whose presence in the body is less than 25% of its proportion in the population.)

2. Educational
   • Castes and communities, whose literacy rate is at least 8% less than the State or district average.
   • Castes and communities of which the proportion of matriculates is at least 20% less than the State or district average.
   • Castes and communities, of which the proportion of graduates is at least 20% less than the State or district average.

3. Economic
   • Castes and communities, a significant proportion of whose members reside only in Kachha houses.
   • Castes and communities, the share of whose members in number of cases and in extent of agricultural lands surrendered under the Agricultural Land Ceiling Act of the State, is nil or significantly low.
   • Castes and communities, the share of whose members in State Government posts and services of Groups A & B/Classes I & II, is not equal to the population-equivalent proportion of the caste/community.

Moral of the Story: Intellectual brilliance/moral superiority is not a substitute for ignorance of facts.