{"id":264257,"date":"2023-10-13T16:47:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T16:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=264257"},"modified":"2023-10-13T16:47:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T16:47:37","slug":"should-the-50-legal-ceiling-on-reservation-be-reconsidered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/should-the-50-legal-ceiling-on-reservation-be-reconsidered\/","title":{"rendered":"Should the 50% legal ceiling on reservation be reconsidered?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/strong>This post has been created based on the article \u201cShould the 50% legal ceiling on reservation be reconsidered?\u201d<\/strong> published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 13th<\/sup> October 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Governance \u2014 Government policies and interventions.<\/strong>
\nGS Paper 2 Social Justice<\/strong> \u2014 Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of the vulnerable sections.<\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>:\u00a0This article discusses the arguments for reconsidering the 50% legal ceiling on reservation in light of the recently released Bihar Caste Census. It also discusses the need for sub-categorisation within the OBCs, as well as the various impacts of a caste census.<\/p>\n

What are the arguments in favour of reconsidering the 50% ceiling on reservation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) Arbitrariness of the number:<\/strong> Many political scientists and sociologists view the 50% ceiling as arbitrary because the judiciary did not have the data to back that.<\/p>\n

2) 50% ceiling not followed universally:<\/strong> Some States have already breached it. For instance, Tamil Nadu provides 69% reservation through a law placed under the Ninth Schedule. The 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections [EWS] is also an exception to the rule.<\/p>\n

3) Lack of a principled defence:<\/strong> The judiciary elevated the principle [50% limit] almost to the status of a fundamental right in the Indra Sawhney <\/em>case even in the absence of a principled defence.<\/p>\n

Why is there a need for reconfiguration within the OBC, SC and ST categories?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

OBC is an administrative category and not a caste category<\/strong>, with heterogenous castes grouped under the OBCs. In light of this:<\/p>\n

1) Underrepresentation within the OBCs:<\/strong> There is a risk of the landed and locally dominant communities taking more advantage<\/strong>.
\nIn this case, sub-categorisation of underrepresented communities will be important. For instance, Bihar has the Extreme Backward Classes (EBCs) category.<\/p>\n

2) Definitional issues:<\/strong> There is no clear way of defining the OBCs like there is for SCs and STs.<\/p>\n

3) Unreliable Data:<\/strong> Data is only useful when there is a clear idea of what one is looking for. For instance, if the number of government jobs is a factor, a lot of OBCs will not be eligible for reservation.
\nJust by setting up a vague eligibility condition and saying that everybody who is below is an OBC has led to certain castes disproportionately benefiting from reservation.<\/p>\n

What can be some of the negative fallouts of the caste census?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) A caste census may lead to further accentuation of caste identities<\/strong> and a fragmented polity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

2) People with vested interests may exploit this.<\/p>\n

3) There is a risk that political parties or caste groups will use the excuse of representation to mean specific caste-based mobilisation.<\/p>\n

4) Caste census takes away focus from the ongoing privatisation<\/strong> of the state and the contractualisation of labour<\/strong>. Also, a lot of States have stopped filling vacant posts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What should be done?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Addressing group-based deprivation through caste census may lead to caste-based mobilisation. Hence, a caste census has to come along with a simultaneous ideological campaign<\/strong> or a political mobilisation which counters individual caste-mobilisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post has been created based on the article \u201cShould the 50% legal ceiling on reservation be reconsidered?\u201d published in The Hindu on 13th October 2023. UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Governance \u2014 Government policies and interventions. GS Paper 2 Social Justice \u2014 Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and… Continue reading Should the 50% legal ceiling on reservation be reconsidered?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[300,212,10498],"class_list":["post-264257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-governance","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1699860386},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}