In January 2019, the Union Council of India approved 10 percent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the General category. It was placed in the Lok Sabha on 8 January as The Constitution One Hundred and Three Amendment Bill, 2019 and having passed the same day got passed by the Rajya Sabha, the next day (9 January). The President gave assent to the bill on 12 January and with the release of a gazette, it turned into law, coming to force from 14 January 2019.
It amended article 15 (6) and 16 (6) of the Constitution of India to allow 10 percent reservations to the EWS category. While clarifying the meaning of various terms, the definition of family in EWS means’ the person who seeks the benefit of reservation, his/her parents and siblings below the age of 18 years and must qualify the other conditions which include; a. annual income of the family must be less than Rs. 8 lakhs, b. their family must not own more than five acres of agriculture land, c. the residential flat area should be below 1000 square feet, d. the residential plot’s area should be below 100 square yards if in a notified municipality sector, and e. residential plot’s area should be below 200 square yards if in a non-notified municipality sector. Under it, State governments are given authority to change the eligibility criteria and also to extend the income limit further for candidates seeking reservations under EWS category which will be valid only in state-owned colleges and state government’s jobs as deemed fit for the respective states.
The forward caste in Indian society and politics referred to as general category, general class and open category and was normally used to denote castes whose members are on average ahead of other Indians economically and socially and as per an estimate of National Sample Survey Organisation of 55th round (1999-2000) and 61st (2004-2005) it accounts for about 28.8% of the Indian population. Before 2019, forward castes were only allowed to compete for seats in the unreserved category in educational institutions and central government jobs, irrespective of their educational/economic status in society, while their significant percentage lived below poverty line, and more than 30 percent of the members are still illiterate.
On behalf of this community, many political parties like Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party, Lok Jan Shakti Party, Rastriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Bahujan Samaj Party have raised support for providing separate reservation for the poor of the forward community. In the context the first initiation was taken in 1991 by the Congress government headed by P. V. Narasimha Rao, but then the idea was dropped in the light of a ruling given by the Supreme Court of India who ruled that separate reservation for the poor among forward castes is invalid.
In a further step the BJP government in 2003 appointed a group of ministers for suggesting measures for implementation of separate reservation, followed by setting up of a task force in 2004 to determine the modalities, and the same year the UPA promised in its election manifesto to give quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), and as a follow-up the Congress government appointed commission to study separate reservation for economically poor among backward class. In India,
The whole exercise of the work was done keeping in view the objective of the directive principles of state policy as contained in Article 46 of the Constitution which enjoins that the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and shall protect them from social injustices and all forms of exploitation, as now the amended Article 16 states,’ Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any economically weaker sections of citizens other than the classes mentioned in clause (4), in addition to the existing reservation
Tamil Nadu is the single state where the condition of forward castes is very poor and they also are represented in government jobs and educational institutions minimally in comparison to their total population in the state. According to an estimate conducted in 2004-2005, against 13 percent of their population they secured around 1.9 percent of seats in medical colleges in 2004 and 2.68 percent seats in 2005, and this trend had been continuing for the last 10 years.
Almost the same situation prevailed in other south Indian States like Karnataka and Kerala but the Communist government of Kerala had earmarked 12 percent seats in private medical colleges for the economically poor among forward castes. This alike, we don’t find any similarity among number of OBCs and Forward population in states and there are many, such as Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Punjab, and West Bengal where the population of OBCs is below 27 percent while on the other are Assam, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which have more than 50 percent forward population.
According to a gazette notification, the 10 percent reservation for general category came into force on 14 January 2019 and it was conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Constitution which allows states to make special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections of citizens. In India the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), is a subcategory of people belonging to the economy-based un-reserved category having an annual family income less than 8 lakhs and who don’t belong to any category such as SCs/STs/OBCs central list. The new special provisions made in Articles 15 and 16 enabled forward castes admission to educational institutions, including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the state, other than the minority educational institutions. It also said that it would be in addition to the existing reservations and subject to a maximum of 10 percent of the total seats in each category.
The whole exercise of the work was done keeping in view the objective of the directive principles of state policy as contained in Article 46 of the Constitution which enjoins that the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and shall protect them from social injustices and all forms of exploitation, as now the amended Article 16 states,’ Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any economically weaker sections of citizens other than the classes mentioned in clause (4), in addition to the existing reservation.
