Reimagining the OBC quota: 

Reimagining the OBC quota: 

Context

• The biggest challenge India faces is that the disadvantaged groups consist of a very large segment of Indian society, while public policies are highly limited in scope.

How is the Job to Claimants ratio?

• The National Sample Survey (NSS) data from 2011-12 show that about 19% of the sample claims to be Dalit, 9% Adivasi, and 44% OBC.
• Among the population aged 25-49, less than 7% have a college degree.
• Less than 3% of the whole population is employed in government and public-sector jobs.

How accurate is the data from SECC?

• The government must drastically increase availability of government jobs and college seats or it must reduce the size of the population eligible for these benefits.
• Hence, the only viable option is to reduce the size of the eligible population, possibly along the lines of sub-categorization proposed by the government.
• The media and claimants to the coveted OBC status such as Jats, Kapus and Patels are busy arguing over the merits of this proposal and no attention is paid to the practical challenges facing sub-categorization

How credible is the data?

• The Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) when releasing poverty and deprivation data from the SECC in 2015 found that about 4.6 million distinct caste names were returned
• For nearly 80 million individuals, caste data were believed to be erroneous.
• As a way of appeasing the OBC lobby, it was decided that the BPL census would incorporate caste information.
• Losing this opportunity would leave us hanging for another 10 years without good data for undertaking sub-categorization of OBC quota or evaluating claims to OBC status by groups like Jats and Patels.

What can be done to eliminate caste based segregation?      

• A broader issue, however, focusses on whether we want to radically rethink our approach to affirmative action
• The present policies focus on preferential admission to colleges and coveted institutions like IITs and IIMs
• The India Human Development Survey of 2011-12 found that among families where no adult has completed more than Class X, 59% children from the forward castes was able to read a simple paragraph while the proportion is only 48% for OBCs, 41% for Dalits and 35% for Adivasis.
• Improving quality of education for all, including those from marginalized groups, must be a first step in addressing caste-based inequalities.
• It would make even less sense if his children are also able to obtain preferential treatment using the same caste certificate.
• The use of the OBC quota must be limited to once in a person’s lifetime, allowing for a churn in the population benefitting from reservations.

Linking the Aadhaar card

• Linking the Aadhaar card to use of benefits makes it possible that individuals use their caste certificates only once, spreading the benefits of reservations over a wider population.
• The present move by the government to rethink OBC quota creates a wedge that could potentially be used to ensure that we have better data on caste-based disadvantages for future discourse.
• Increased attempts at linking benefits to Aadhaar allow us with an option to ensure that reservation benefits are not captured by a few.