Govt makes it easier for Kayasths to get OBC caste certificates

There are 142 notified OBC communities in Gujarat, including the Kayasths. The Kayasth community members in eight districts – Bharuch, Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Navsari, Tapi, Narmada and Valsad – were surveyed by the OBC commission and included as one of the OBC communities in Gujarat in 2007. The total population of the surveyed community is estimated to be around 6,000.

An official associated with the development said, “The Kayasths, who have been notified as OBCs by the state government, reside in (the above mentioned) eight districts and are in the business of preparing and selling roasted peanuts, grams and puffed rice. They are also known as Bhadbhuja.”

The official added that Kayasths are granted caste certificates by the competent authority in the concerned district only after they can produce a certificate from the OBC commission office in Gandhinagar that state that they belong to the families who have been surveyed by the panel.

Referring to this rule, the government circular said, “Because of this procedure of issuing a certificate on the basis of the record of survey by the commission from the only office of the commission situated in Gandhinagar, people of Kayasth community face difficulties of delay in getting certificate of Socially and Educationally Backward Community (OBC).”

It added that to remedy this problem, it has been decided that the certified copy of the commission’s record of survey of the Kayasth community will be made available to the offices of the deputy director (Welfare of Developing Castes) or social welfare officer (Welfare of Developing Castes) of these eight districts.

These officials from the eight districts would be able to certify from the record provided by the OBC commission whether an applicant is from the Kayasth families that were originally surveyed by the commission and then issue a certificate of OBC.

A senior official said, “The method of certifying if the applicant was from the Kayasth families surveyed by the commission was devised to ensure that not all Kayasth community members from the state get OBC certificates, but only those who were surveyed by the commission and found meeting the criteria.” The OBC certificate makes a person eligible to get reservation in government jobs and education under OBC quota.