Policies against caste inequality; the OBCs

The state has tried to fight caste inequality in two ways: special programmes and laws.

Special programmes: lists (schedules) of castes and tribes for special treatment date from 1935. Programmes for OBCs came in the early 1990s. The main tool is reservation: seats are reserved for SCs and STs in legislatures, government jobs and educational institutions, in proportion to their share of the population.

Laws:

• the Caste Disabilities Removal Act, 1850 (under the British): a person did not lose rights by changing religion or caste;
• Article 17 of the Constitution: abolished untouchability;
• the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989: punishes violence and humiliation against SCs and STs;
• the 93rd Amendment (2005): reservations for OBCs in higher education.

Laws alone cannot end a social practice: untouchability still exists in places, decades after it was abolished. People's attitudes and power relations have to change too.

Dalit assertion: Dalits have fought for themselves, inspired by Phule, Ambedkar and Periyar: through political parties like the BSP, organisations like the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti in Karnataka, and Dalit literature, such as the writings of Daya Pawar.

OBCs: the Constitution also speaks of 'socially and educationally backward classes'. The first Backward Classes Commission was headed by Kaka Kalelkar (1953). The Mandal Commission report was implemented in 1990. Recent surveys put OBCs at about 41 per cent of the population.

The OBCs are very diverse: some are landowning and powerful (upper OBCs), others are very poor (lower OBCs), and their status differs from state to state.