OBC creamy layer may go up

The Centre may increase the creamy layer ceiling for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) before the Assembly election in October in Bihar that has a high percentage of the OBC population to ensure those better off do not corner away the 27% reservation granted to them in government jobs and higher education.

A group of ministers (GoM) headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been tasked to raise the gross annual income that was last fixed at Rs8 lakh per annum. In 2013, the ceiling was raised from Rs4.5 lakh to Rs6 lakh.

Other GoM members are Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Thawarchand Gehlot and V Muraleedharan. It will examine if there should be different creamy layer criteria for the rural and urban areas as repeatedly pressed by the National Commission for Backward Classes since income levels are lower in villages.

After 90 years, the Government has conceded the demand of the OBCs led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to count the OBCs in the 2021 Census. The last count was done in the 1931 Census that was used five decades later by the Mandal Commission in 1980 to grant the quota to the OBCs. Mandal had estimated them to be 52% of the total population.

There have been exercises from time to time to count the OBC numbers to verify whether they really deserve 27% reservation but the results were never released by the government except one of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) that estimated the OBCs in the country in 2007 to be 40.94% as against the Scheduled Castes 19.59% and the Scheduled Tribes 8.63%.

The results of the 2021 Census as regards the OBCs’ count would be available only towards the end of 2022 or early 2023 and until then the government continues to use their count as in 1931.