Mandate of the Commission

The committee has a three-point mandate. One, it has to examine the “extent of inequitable distribution of benefits of reservation” among various castes and communities that come under the Central OBC list.

• The committee also has to work out the mechanism, criteria and parameters for the actual sub-categorisation. This will be tricky. The actual reservation will continue to be 27% and within this the committee will have to do the re-arranging.
• The third task is bringing order to the Central list of OBCs by removing any repetitions.

Social Implications of the OBC Sub-categorisation

• At present, many feel that the more advanced OBC castes corner the lion’s share of the benefits and have become influential.
• Sub-categorisation will offer more opportunities to the most backward castes among the OBCs.