Opinion Degrees of change

While the survey estimates have been contested,there is consensus that these are fairly robust sources of information on the educational,occupational and socio-economic status of OBCs. The NSS 62nd round provides insights into the educational attainment of OBCs in higher education in India. Among adults,about 5.5 per cent of Hindu OBCs and 3.7 per cent of Muslim OBCs graduated from college,as compared to 17 per cent of Hindu Others. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe groups perform even worse: only 1.8 per cent of Hindu STs,3.7 per cent of Hindu SCs and 1.2 per cent of Muslim SC/ STs are graduates. It is evident that,among the backward groups,STs,SCs and Muslims are more disadvantaged in attaining higher education than Hindu OBCs.

But the central point is that the main reasons for the continued poor representation of OBCs,SCs/ STs and Muslims in higher education is the poor enrolment of these groups in primary,secondary and higher secondary education. For instance,Hindu OBCs are adequately represented at the middle and secondary school level,at 34.6 per cent; remember,they are 34.7 per cent of the population. But disparities begin at the higher secondary level,where many drop out from school. There,the OBC representation comes down to 24.6 per cent. For most other groups like SCs,STs and Muslims,there is a gap from the start,at the elementary level.

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS),Mumbai,undertook a study to access the OBC reservations in higher education that have been in existence in almost 15 Indian states since varying points in time — like Tamil Nadu since 1951 and Karnataka and Maharashtra since the ’60s. It was an attempt to draw the direct implications for the 27 per cent OBC reservation policy in Centrally-funded institutions implemented since 2008.

Data from a set of universities from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra — both states with a long history of reservations — are revealing. OBC students perform better than the General category students in medical entrance exams,while their performance is at par with the General category students at graduation-level exams. In Tamil Nadu,students from Backward Class (BC) and Most Backward Class (MBC) are as competitive as the General category students at both the entry and exit levels in higher education. However,the enrolment rates and performance indices of SC and ST students in these states remain poor. What the data show is that the BC and MBC students in Tamil Nadu have the desired marks as well as paying capacity while enrolling in majority of the self-financing colleges and are adequately represented among students. It is clear that BCs should be de-listed from the OBC lists in Tamil Nadu.

By contrast,in states like Uttar Pradesh,which implemented OBC reservations only in the ’80s,the enrolment rates and performance indices of OBC students in engineering and medical entrance exams are lower than those for General category students.

Incomes strongly determine the attainment of higher education within the reserved categories. About 70 per cent of the graduates from Hindu OBCs are from economically better-off backgrounds (the two upper-most quintiles),as per the monthly per capita expenditure data from the National Sample Survey in 2005-06. (For comparison,at the national level,only 7 per cent of all graduates are from poorer income backgrounds; the majority,55 per cent to be exact,from the richest income groups.) For the IITs,factors such as schooling under a Central board,access to test coaching,living in urban areas,having parents in government service,and having parents with an income of at least Rs 1-2 lakh per annum were major enablers among successful OBC,ST and SC candidates. These numbers are consonant with the possibility that a second or third generation are benefiting from reservations,rather than the first-generation learners within the poorer communities.

Nevertheless,the share of OBC students among all students who passed the IIT-JEE has remained much lower than their official quota shares. Among the students who passed the JEE in the year 2007,only 12 per cent were OBCs; the shares of SC and ST students were 7.6 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively. Thus,there is continued under-representation of reserved category students,especially SC/ ST,in the IITs.

The central lesson of the numbers from sample surveys is that what is really needed is elementary,secondary and higher secondary education that is both of quality and affordable. That will increase the pool of reserved category students who could take advantage of reservations in higher education. This needs to be complemented with short-term measures like access to affordable coaching for professional competitive exams like the JEE,so that the poorest from the reserved categories would get the benefits. Also,the “creamy layer” among the OBCs cannot be identified only through income certificates,which can be faked easily,but through evidence-based approaches. Census,NCBC or state-level surveys should be used to continually exclude groups that have overcome social and educational deprivation from OBC lists. Without these steps being taken,reservation will not work as a tool to achieve social equity.

The writer is an assistant professor and PhD scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences,Mumbai express@expressindia.com