Author: Arun Anand
Publication: NewKerala.com
Date: May 24, 2006
URL: http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=64466
Even as the government has decided to extend
27 percent reservation in institutions of higher education to other backward
classes (OBCs) from June 2007, it is yet to ascertain the precise population
of this community.
According to government sources, there are
several figures floating around that seek to ascertain what percentage of
India's 1.17 billion population belongs to this section of the society.
The latest census, conducted in 2001, did
not collect information on OBCs.
When the question on the size of OBC population
was placed before Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh recently,
he did not have the precise figures.
"I think, that should be decided by people
who are more knowledgeable. But the point is the OBCs form a fairly sizeable
percentage of our population," the minister said.
"There is no final, conclusive empirical
evidence of the size of OBCs in India. That could have come only from the
census," said Yogendra Yadav, noted social scientist and professor at
the Centre for the Study of Developing Studies here.
"But the urban, upper and middle class
Indians had opposed the idea of counting the OBC population through census.
And they are the same ones who are opposing reservation for OBCs," Yadav
told IANS.
"In my opinion, the OBC population of
our country is between 40-44 percent. I am basing this on the national election
studies conducted over the past two decades by our centre."
But B.P. Mandal Commission - whose recommendations
on reservation for members of the scheduled castes and tribes in government
jobs had stirred the hornet's nest in 1990 - has estimated the OBC population
in the country at 52 percent.
The pro-reservation lobby uses this data to
push for 27 percent reservation for OBCs in institutions of higher education,
while others say after the new system is implemented, the total quantum of
quota for socially backward groups will rise to 50 percent.
Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes form
an estimated 25 percent of India's population, though the veracity of this
figure has also been challenged. Together, these groups form a formidable
vote bank for the political class which explains the bipartisan support for
quotas.
But another estimate drawn from the data compiled
by the National Sample Survey Organisation - which functions under the ministry
of statistics and programme implementation - places their number at 36 percent
of the population.
If Muslims and are excluded from the estimate,
the proportion falls further to 32 percent.
This apart, the National Family Health Statistics
- a survey conducted in 1998 by the Directorate of Health Services - has also
estimated the non-Muslim OBCs in the country. As per its statistics, India
has 29.8 percent OBCs.
"The various data is in the official
domain do not present the true picture of India's OBC population. The National
Sample Survey had a methodological problem where people were asked if they
were OBCs," Yadav said.
"Many of the respondents were not aware
of their status in terms of caste. That is why the National Sample Survey
data under-reports the population of OBCs in India," he added.
Sections of the student community, especially
upper caste students in major cities, have been protesting the proposal, with
medical students and resident doctors of the government-run hospitals going
on a strike in the capital.
