Only a handful of 130 BC castes enjoying govt sops

Hyderabad: As the BC reservation debate goes on, those with less numerical strength and scattered across Telangana are pushed into disadvantaged positions, when it comes to reservation. From the 130 castes under Backward Classes, only about 20 to 25 castes are historically dominant castes. They have successfully landed various government provisions, while the others have failed to mount pressure on the authorities to get their rightful share.

During the public hearing undertaken by the BC Commission across the State as part of the caste survey, it came to light that these handful of select castes have been enjoying the benefits of reservation, while most are deprived of the same privilege. Commission members had to bear some tough questions from some of the disadvantaged castes during the hearing.

“When we were undertaking public hearings some observations by representatives of a caste under BC category intrigued us. One of them wondered if, on the completion of the survey, they will get the benefits in their lifetime,” stated a panel member, while pointing out that over 100 castes are yet to fully enjoy the fruits of reservation.

The BC Commission, which awaits the State Government’s SEEEPC (Social, Education, Employment, Economic, Political, Caste) survey – Caste Survey report, is hopeful that justice will be rendered this time around.

It is also expecting to get a copy of the 300-page report from the Independent Expert Working Group (IEWG) that was recently submitted to the government.

Meanwhile, IEWG has analysed and interpreted the survey and ranked different castes across parameters. It calculated a Composite Backwardness Index (CBI) for each of the castes in the survey.

A first-of-its-kind analytical model to measure socio-economic backwardness and assigns a CBI score and rank for all castes. “For the first time we have developed an objective statistical method to calculate how backward each caste is relative to the other castes. It's only relative to the other castes. To put it in simple terms, it is a backwardness ranking of all the castes,” the group members explained.

The BC Commission aims to study as to which of these castes are disadvantaged under the current provisions and based on rankings how many benefits reach the deserving castes.

“Based on the ranking, we will be studying and finding out solutions to provide priority to these disadvantaged castes. We must ensure that these castes are getting benefits at least now. Otherwise, this entire exercise would prove futile,” a commission member told this correspondent.