By IANS
New Delhi : More than a decade and half after the government accepted the Mandal Commission report providing for reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in government jobs, OBC representation in the central government services remains dismal, Janata Dal-United president Sharad Yadav has said.
Yadav made this claim earlier this week on the basis of data collected from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). He asked the government to constitute a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to investigate the non-implementation of reservation policy and demanded a caste-based census in 2011.
He produced a data table of the DoPT in the latest annual report. The data was collected on Jan 1, 2005, showing the representation of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (STs) and OBCs in central government services.
The Mandal Commission report accepted by the then National Front government had set aside 27 percent of the government jobs for the OBCs.
Yadav pointed out: “The Mandal Commission had found in 1980 that OBCs have just around four percent representation in the Group A and B of central government services. And the latest annual report of the DoPT says that the OBCs constitute just 4.7 percent of Group A services and 2.3 percent of Group B services.”
The comparative figures for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes – who enjoy reservation since independence – are only slightly better.
The Scheduled Caste representation in the Group A services is 11.9 percent as against 12.8 percent jobs earmarked for them. For the Scheduled Tribes that have a quota of 8.5 percent, the representation is a mere 4.3 percent, according to the data.
In the C category or Class III services, the representation is just 5.9 percent for the OBCs and 6.5 percent for the Scheduled Tribes.
Even in Group D category of Class IV employees, there are only 4.3 percent OBC employees, excluding the sweepers. The OBC quota implementation in jobs for sweepers was even lower at 2.3 percent.
There were only 5.29 percent OBCs in all four categories put together, excluding sweepers. The figure comes down to 5.21 percent including the sweepers.
Excluding the sweepers there were only 18.3 percent Scheduled Caste employees and for the sweeper category it was 59.2 percent. The overall Scheduled Caste representation comes to 16.63 percent for all four groups.
For the Scheduled Tribes, the scene was worse. For D group minus the sweepers their representation was just 6.9 percent with 4.9 percent of them employed as sweepers. All four groups put together, the figure is 6.43 percent excluding sweepers and 6.39 percent for all groups including the sweepers.
Justifying reservation for OBCs, Yadav said: “The policy for reservation to weaker sections is meant for their empowerment.
“But what is happening is that even those who are competent to get selected on the basis of their merit in general category are being denied their due. The figures obtained from the annual report of the DoPT is a glaring example of what is happening in the government so far as this policy of OBC reservation is concerned.”