Concept of Social Backwardness

The 1992 Indra Sawhney (Mandal Commission) judgment laid down broad guidelines for affirmative action and reservation policy to be followed by the Government.The judgment was landmark in many ways for it upheld the ceiling of 50% quotas, approved the Mandal Commission’s 11 indicators for “social backwardness”.

11 indicators were laid down under the broad heads of social, economic and educational.

Social:

  • Castes/classes considered as socially backward by others
  • Castes/classes which mainly depend on manual labour for their livelihood
  • Castes/classes where the percentage of married women below 17 is 25% above the state average in rural areas and 10% in urban areas; and that of married men is 10% and 5% above the state average in rural and urban areas respectively
  • Castes/classes where participation of females in work is at least 25% above the state average

Original Provision for Reservation

  • Ideas about reservation in independent India were shaped significantly by the so-called Poona Pact between B R Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi had vehemently opposed as divisive the communal award of August 1932, which separated Dalits (then called the “untouchables”) from Hindus, while Ambedkar was for it.
  • Gandhi went on a fast in jail, but eventually, though initially reluctantly, agreed to a compromise with Ambedkar in September 1932, under which a higher number of seats was promised for Dalits under the Hindu umbrella.
  • The Constituent Assembly for independent India’s Constitution carried forward the commitment to reservations for Scheduled Castes and Tribes as part of this promise — and quotas for SCs and STs is, therefore, the only explicit reservation that was written in.

Educational:

  • Castes/classes where the number of children in the age group of 5 to 15 years who never attended school is at least 25% above the state average
  • Castes/classes where the rate of student drop-out in the age group of 5-15 years is at least 25% above the state average
  • Castes/classes amongst whom the proportion of matriculates is at least 25% below the state average

Economic:

  • Castes/classes where the average value of family assets is at least 25% below the state average
  • Castes/classes where the number of families living in kachcha houses is at least 25 % above the state average
  • Castes/classes where the source of drinking water is beyond half a kilometer for more than 50% of the households
  • Castes/classes where the number of the house-holds having taken a consumption loan is at least 25% above the state average

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