OBC numbers jump 5 pc in five years
Sep 26, 2008: The Indian Express
This may put further stress on the government’s affirmative action agenda. A study released by the Government today revealed that the population of OBCs (other backward classes) has jumped 5 per cent in a short span of five years from 1999 to 2004.
The study, undertaken by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and released by GK Vasan, junior minister for programme implementation and statistics, said that the disturbing aspect of this growth was that the increase had come about mainly due to local and national political pursuits of adding more castes in the OBC list.
“Even after taking into consideration scope of errors, different sample sizes and methodologies of the two surveys, such large variations are incomprehensible. It certainly puts reliability and validity of these sources of information into question. Population being a basic and fundamental indicator of development, this trend has adverse implications for making informed and effective policies on affirmative action in India,¶ the report said.
The survey picked up the numbers from the results of the National Sample Survey 55th Round to 61st Round.
The report said there was an urgent need to include ‘caste’ and develop parameters to ascertain ‘class’ of individuals as formal categories in large-scale surveys such as the census, NSSO and National Family Health Survey on a consistent basis. “As long as there exists policies and programmes on affirmative action, caste-based census surveys become a pertinent prep-requisite for effective targeting of entitlements,¶ it said.
The report said factors such as differences in OBC population across states and in rural-urban areas did not seem to have been considered while formulating a blanket reservation policy. Caste-based surveys are required to base current policy-making process on empirical and statistical evidence in the light of high resentment associated with policies of affirmative action, particularly related to OBCs, the report said.
“Such an unprecedented increase in population of OBCs was not witnessed in SCs and STs, who have been enjoying reservation for many decades. But certainly there was a proportional reduction in the population from ‘Others’ category in the 55th and 61st round. This reinforces the fact that rampant inclusion of many castes was done in the OBC list from 1999 to 2005, mainly under political aegis,¶ the report said.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/OBC-numbers-jump-5-pc-in-five-years/366055
