OBCs 'still deprived' of reservation benefits

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Rajeev Yadav, general secretary of an NGO Rihai Manch said that even after 30 years, Other Backward Class (OBC) community is still deprived of its actual benefits. He also said that the Modi government had given assurances that a separate OBC column would be added into the Census 2021. But, a week before when the Census pre-test was to start from August 12, 2019, senior officials of the Union Home Ministry had said that there will be no enumeration of OBCs in the Census 2021.

New Delhi: Even after 30 years since the then Prime Minister VP Singh announced granting 27 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Class (OBC), the community is still deprived of its actual benefits, said Rajeev Yadav, general secretary of an NGO Rihai Manch.

"In the Census 2021, the current government don't want to count the number of people who fall under the category of OBC because they know that if they revealed the actual data then their political propaganda will get burst as it happened when the Mandal Commission came into force," Yadav told ETV Bharat.

He said that if the actual data of OBC's comes out through the Census 2021, then the particular class will also demand for actual reservations like the SC/STs and the government knows that it won't be able to do so.

The Modi government had given assurances that a separate OBC column would be added into the Census 2021. But, a week before when the Census pre-test was to start from August 12, 2019, senior officials of the Union Home Ministry had said that there will be no enumeration of OBCs in the Census 2021.

However, on July 14, the parliamentary committee on welfare of OBCs had recommended to count the number of people belonging to this category.

Government sources have also confirmed that the same requests been forwarded by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to the Union Home Ministry and the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.

The Mandal Commission was set up on January 1, 1979, under the chairmanship of BP Mandal. It submitted its report on December 31, 1980. The second half of the Commission's recommendations was the reservations for OBCs in central educational institutions.

The Commission had also recommended land redistribution and change in relations of production.

Hardeep Singh Chahal, the national coordinator of the Congress OBC department, said even after 30 years, the recommendations made by the Mandal Commission are improvised and rest are yet to be implemented.

"Even though OBCs have got 27% reservation in employment and education, but it is still not implemented across the country," he added. He claimed that if the government collects data for the OBCs, then "we will see that as of date, there are 65% OBCs in our country".

Notably, the first counting of OBCs was conducted under the British rule in 1872 and the exercise was carried out till 1931.

The OBCs constituted 52 per cent of the population then. The Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011, which was carried out as a separate exercise under the UPA government, had collected OBC-related data, but withheld the caste statistics during its release in 2015 and "technical errors" were cited in the database.