A BRIEF HISTORY OF OBC RESERVATIONS

THE KALELKAR COMMISSION,

set up in 1953, was the first to identify backward classes other than the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes at the national level. Its conclusion that caste is an important measure of backwardness was rejected on the ground that it had failed to apply more objective criteria such as income and literacy to determine backwardness.

The Mandal Commission report of 1980 estimated the OBC population at 52% and classified 1,257 communities as backward. It recommended increasing the existing quotas, which were only for SC/ST, from 22.5% to 49.5% to include the OBCS. A decade later, its recommendations were implemented in government jobs, a move that sparked major agitations.

To assuage the anti-reservation protesters, the P V Narasimha Rao government in 1991 introduced a 10% quota for the “economically backward sections” among the forward castes. The Supreme Court struck this down in the Indra Sawhney vs Union of India case, where it held that the Constitution recognised only social and educational — and not economic — backwardness. The apex court, however, held reservation for OBCS as valid and directed that the creamy layer of OBC (those earning over a specified income) should not avail reservation facilities. The overall reservation for SCS, STS and OBCS was capped at 50%. Based on the order, the central government reserved 27% of seats in union civil posts and services, to be filled through direct recruitment, for OBCS. The quotas were subsequently enforced in central government educational institutions.