Backward class panel finds an ‘alarming’ rise in girl child marriage, decline in Maratha representation in govt services over past six years

The contents of the MSBCC report form part of an affidavit filed by the State General Administration Department (GAD), through its Secretary Sumant N Bhange, in response to a clutch of petitions challenging the 10 per cent reservation granted to Marathas under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) category in jobs and education.

The challenge to the SEBC Act, 2024, which was based on the recommendations of the Shukre Commission, is likely to be heard April 10 by the Bombay High Court.

In 2018, the previous MSBCC, headed by retired Justice M G Gaikwad, had found that the girl child marriage rate was 0.32 per cent. In the 2024 survey report, this rate was 13.7 per cent.

The 2024 report has also pointed out that the girl child marriage rate among the Marathas was higher than that in the open category (7.07 per cent). The male child marriage report among Marathas stands at 11. 69 per cent while it is 14.79 per cent in the open category.

The Gaikwad Commission’s 2018 report was based on a survey of 43,629 families, from two villages of each of 355 talukas with more than 50 per cent Maratha population. However, the Supreme Court found the report insufficient to establish ‘extraordinary circumstances’ for providing quota exceeding 50 % total reservation limit set by the Apex Court. The Shukre Commission surveyed 1,58,20,264 families across the state on a “massive scale” and found that Marathas constituted 28 per cent of the state’s population.

The 2024 report also revealed that 43.76 per cent of Maratha women are involved in manual labour for a livelihood. While 53 per cent men from the community undertook manual labour in 2018, the 2024 report found it to lower at 44.98 per cent.

The Shukre Commission report noted that women and men involved in manual or physical labour in the open category were at 14.06 per cent and 21.33 per cent, respectively, significantly lower than the Marathas. It stated that 58.76 % of Maratha women said they were subjected to indignity and faced discrimination and violence.

The Shukre Commission found inadequate representation of the community in all sectors of public services, and said the Marathas have remained “completely out of the mainstream” due to their backwardness.

It said total representation of Marathas in government services had decreased by over 5 percentage points from 14.63 percent in 2018 to 9 percent in 2024. In 2014, the Narayan Rane Committee (which was not a statutory commission) had recorded 14.68 per cent representation of Marathas in government services.

The Shukre Commission referred to extreme poverty, decline in agricultural income, and partition of land holdings as reasons for the current status of the Marathas.

While the Rane Committee in 2014 found that 36.26 per cent farmers who died by suicide in the state belonged to the Maratha community, the Gaikwad Commission in 2018 noted that Marathas constituted 80.28 per cent of death by suicide by farmers.

The Shukre Commission said there was “drastic increase highlighting a severe community crises” as the share of Marathas in the suicides had gone up to 94.11 per cent – in the open category, it was 5.18 per cent.

The Shukre Commission, however, noted that the number of Maratha households below the poverty line had decreased sharply in the last six years. While the Gaikwad Commission in 2018 found that 37.28 per cent Maratha households were living below poverty line, the Shukre Commission said it had reduced to 21.22 percent.

The 2024 report also noted that the number of households below the poverty line in the open category was 18.89 %, slightly less than the Marathas.

There is also an “increasing trend indicating persistence of superstitious beliefs” among  Marathas with 29.28% of households following superstitious practices in 2014, which increased to 39.82% in 2018 and rose further to 43.40% in 2024. The Shukre Commission noted a stark difference as only 15.49% families in the open category followed superstitious practices.

It also pointed to rising landlessness among Marathas – the community formed 31.17 per cent of the landless in 2024 as against 8 per cent in 2018.

The report also noted there was “steady increase indicating worsening living conditions” among the Marathas – 81.81 per cent of the community were living in kutcha houses in 2024, up from 69.8 per cent in 2014 and 70.56 per cent in 2018.

It also recorded that 93.68 per cent of the community had occupational stigma in 2024, up from 53.05 per cent in 2018.

It said there was “dramatic increase indicating worsening caste perceptions” as 94.32 percent Marathas faced caste-related inferiority in 2024, compared to 73 per cent in 2018 and 36.76 per cent in 2014.

The Shukre Commission said the percentage of Marathas in education was “lower” than other communities in the open category.

The state government said “the representation of the Maratha community in the political field by a handful number of politicians belies the reality revealed by the situation on the ground”.