Friday, March 29, 2024
HomePoliticsNo more Hindu-Muslim anomaly, Rohini panel seeks parity for all religions’ OBCs...

No more Hindu-Muslim anomaly, Rohini panel seeks parity for all religions’ OBCs in central list

New Delhi: The Hindu-Muslim anomaly in granting reservation to occupational communities such as Darzis (tailors), Dhunias (cotton carders) and Julahas (weavers) in several states is likely to be addressed by a government-constituted commission, formed to examine the sub-categorisation of OBCs (Other Backward Classes).

At present, Muslims who belong to such groups — for example, Julahas in Uttar Pradesh (UP), and Dhunias and Darzis in Bihar, among others — have got reservation in the central list of OBCs, but Hindus from the same groups have been left out. 

The Justice Rohini Commission has compiled data on these religiously restricted entries and is likely to recommend removal of the anomaly in the central list of OBCs to ensure that the backward class status is independent of religion, ThePrint has learnt. 

Set up in October 2017 to examine the sub-categorisation of OBCs to ensure equitable distribution of reservation benefits, the Justice Rohini Commission is likely to submit its recommendation to the government before its term ends in July 2022. Since 2017, its term has been extended 12 times

It was in 1980, soon after the second Backward Classes Commission popularly known as Mandal Commission submitted its report recommending 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in central government jobs and educational institutions, that the federal government came out with the first central list of OBCs. The list has been amended many times since then. 

The Rohini Commission was originally mandated to look at the distribution of reservation benefits at the central level. Sub-categorisation of OBCs, which comprise thousands of communities, castes etc, has been a long-standing demand among some sections to ensure better distribution of reservation benefits.

The commission’s term of reference was later expanded to include examining of and recommending correction of any repetition, ambiguities, inconsistencies and spelling errors in the central list.

The four-member commission is headed by former Delhi High Court judge, Justice G. Rohini (Retd), while the other members are Dr J.K. Bajaj, Director, Centre for Policy Studies, Gauri Basu, Director, Anthropological Survey of India, Kolkata (ex-officio member), and Vivek Joshi, Registrar General and Census Commissioner (ex-officio member). 


Also Read: Ex-civil servants, caste balance show Modi-Shah imprint on new Yogi govt, 1 Muslim minister too


Pitch for OBC status to be ‘religion-neutral’

According to highly placed sources in the government, the Justice Rohini Commission has come across around 200 religiously restricted entries in the central list of OBCs, where Hindus belonging to specific occupational communities have not been given OBC status like their Muslim counterparts. 

As a result, socially and economically backward Hindus from these particular occupational classes are not able to avail of the 27 per cent reservation in central government jobs and educational institutions, they added. 

The sources further said that the commission is addressing the issue to ensure that in any OBC entry in the central list, all members of the community, irrespective of religion, will be entitled to reservation benefits. 

“Where this type of religion-specific restriction is there, the commission has tried to make it more equitable for all religious communities, so that people from all religions are included,” a source told ThePrint. 

The commission, another source said, wants to ensure that OBC status is independent of religion in general. In other words, it should remain a religion-neutral category. 

What the commission found  

One of the sources quoted above said that in Bihar, for instance, the Justice Rohini Commission has come across 23 entries where Muslims from vocational communities like Dhunia (cotton carder), Darzi (tailor), Dafali (drumbeater), Sikligar (one who sharpens knives), Nalband (one who fixes horseshoes) and Mirshikar (hunter) have been included in the central OBC list, but their Hindu counterparts have not. 

Out of the 23 entries, the commission has come across just 2-3 entries where Hindus from a particular occupational class have been treated as Scheduled Castes (SC), instead of finding a place in the central OBC list. 

“For instance, while a Dhobi (washerman) who is a Muslim is included in the OBC list, a Hindu Dhobi has been included in the SC list. But such cases are few and far between,” the source said. 

Similarly, in UP, while Muslim weavers (Julahas) and masons (Raj Mistry) have been included in the central list of OBCs, Hindus from the same occupational communities have been left out

In UP, the commission has come across four entries in the central list that are restricted to a particular religion.   

“Non-Muslim weavers in UP have been trying to get into either the OBC or SC list, which has become a political issue in the state,” the source said.  

“In the case of masons, for instance, the state backward classes commission had recommended to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) to consider including both Muslims and non-Muslims in the central list,” the source added.

While masons from the Muslim community were included in the central list in 1999 on the advice of the NCBC, no decision was taken to include Hindu masons after the NCBC said they have also applied to get SC status.  

The commission has found that discrepancies in the central list on religious lines vary from state to state.

In Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, for instance, the central list has a separate category for Muslims whose occupational class qualifies them as OBCs, but their Hindu counterparts are not included as OBC.

“In MP, some of the backward class Hindus have been separately added to the OBC list under the subhead ‘Hindu’. This kind of thing is not there in other states like Bihar,” the source said.   

However, it is West Bengal where the commission came across the maximum number of such anomalies. “The central OBC list of West Bengal has 39 entries that are restricted to Muslims alone,” the source further said, adding: “The commission has looked into all such entries which are restricted to a particular religion, and tried to ensure that OBCs from all religions get an equitable place.”

This, the source added, is in line with the recommendation of the second Backward Classes Commission, according to which, for an occupational community included in the central OBC list, members of all religions are presumed to be included. 

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)


Also Read: You are an OBC if you score 11/22 — We traced nearly 100 years of caste in Indian census



Source: The Print

RELATED ARTICLES
- Advertisment -

Most Popular

Recent Comments