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The Bill to grant 10% reservation to the Maratha community in education and employment passed by the Maharashtra Assembly on Tuesday was formulated based on the report of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission, which says it took into consideration “widespread data of 1.58 crore households collected from the nook and corner of the state”, used resources such as scientific survey, books, writings, opinions, and accounted for suggestions and disagreements.
Apart from finding the Maratha community “socially, educationally and economically backward”, the report said it was inadequately represented in public employment and education with low financial resources. It also said that 94% of farmers in the state who had committed suicide were from the Maratha community.
It says that Marathas make up 28% of the state’s population and 84% of them fall under the non-creamy layer category, making them eligible for protection in terms of reservation in employment and education, as held by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case.
“Maratha households falling below the poverty line and having yellow ration cards are 21.11% while open category households falling in the category stand at 18.09%. The percentage of Maratha households (in the category) is above the state average (of 17.4%) and this shows that they are economically backward,” the report stated.
The commission also concluded that the Marathas have suffered abject poverty for decades as their primary source of income was agriculture, which was depleting with each passing year.
Education indicators, the report said, clearly illustrate the community’s lower education levels, especially in completion of secondary education and achieving graduate, post-graduate and professional degrees.
“Economic backwardness is the highest barrier to education. Insufficient education often invites poverty and vice-versa. The Maratha community’s economic fortunes have since been marked by dwindling returns from agriculture, fragmentation of land holdings, loss of traditional dignity associated with agriculture, lack of attention to educational training of youths, etc,” the report states.
The panel notes that the community is largely dependent on manual labour as porters or coolies, or employed in jobs of peon, sweepers, etc. It says that substantial sections of the community have also been left behind due to their inadequate representation in employment, services and in avenues of education.
The panel says it examined cases in various parts of the country where the 50% ceiling of quota, as set by the Supreme Court, has been exceeded. The commission draws references from the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies of Posts and Services (for SCs, STs and OBCs) (Amendment) Act, 2023, and the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, SCs and STs (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of appointments of Posts in the Services under the State) Act, 1993. In Bihar the amendment took the percentage of reservations to 65% while in Tamil Nadu it stands at 69%.
The panel notes that the ceiling set by the Supreme Court can be exceeded if any peculiar, unique and distinctive circumstances and situations exist, and that such reservation would stand the test of reasonableness and/or intelligible differentia under Article 14 of the Constitution.
As per the panel, the Maratha community is so deprived that it needs a distinct classification from the existing OBCs, and that this needs immediate attention and resolution. It says that compared to OBCs, the backwardness of Marathas is more pervasive in terms of coverage and penetration, and further regressive in character.
The commission thus notes that the classification of Marathas as a separate category for reservation is not unreasonable and that any remedial measure of providing “reasonably adequate extent of reservation to such a class” would be in conformity with the obligation of the Constitution.
“The reservation for the vulnerable Maratha community is the need of the hour and necessary, not only for making available to it a platform which it can use for its social and educational advancement but also to prevent its future generations from slipping below the present level. If not done so on an urgent basis, the community would denigrate even further leading to complete societal imbalance,” the panel says.
The commission says there is no need for the community to be granted political reservation as it is adequately represented with numerical strength in the state.
