The Supreme Court’s judgement allowing states to sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to ensure the less advantaged groups among them have preferential access to reserved seats in public employment and educational institutions drew sharply divergent responses from within these communities.

Some welcomed the judgement saying it was important to identify and carve out sub-quotas for the most backward communities within the SC and ST fold. Others, however, questioned the rationale of the judgement.

“The categories of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were created to address historical injustice, not economic backwardness,” said Virginius Xaxa, a visiting professor at the Institute for Human Development, Delhi.

Xaxa, who belongs to the Oraon Adivasi community, is considered one of India’s foremost experts on tribal matters. He said reservations for Dalits “was to address the wrongs of untouchability”, while in the case of tribal communities, “one has to understand the long history and relationship of oppression by the state and larger Indian society which continues until today”.

Lack of representation

Support for the judgement came largely from those belonging to Dalit and Adivasi communities that believe they have lagged behind other, more dominant groups.

“We have waited 30 years for this order to be passed,” said Ambanna Arolikar, an activist from the Madiga Dalit community in Karnataka. In both Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Madiga leaders have long alleged that other Dalit communities like the Holeyas and the Malas have cornered most SC reservation benefits. “In the last few years, some communities have managed to do well but some have remained backward,” Arolikar said.

Similarly, in Jharkhand, Sushma Asur, a poet from the Asur community, pointed out that of the 42 Scheduled Tribes in the state, only a handful of numerically large communities such as the Santhal, Munda, Oraon and Ho, have availed most of the benefits of reservation. Particularly vulnerable tribal groups, or PVTGs, like the Asurs have lagged behind, she noted.

“When it comes to PVTGs, we are given free ration and kept suppressed,” she said. “Many Asur children are sitting unemployed at home after doing matriculation or graduation. I believe there should be a proper survey and sub-classification should be enacted.”

In Bihar, Mahendra Suman, a researcher from the Musahar Dalit community, too, echoed this view. “Sub-classification should be done,” he said. “In Bihar, it is clear that only four or five of the Dalit communities out of 22 are getting represented. Musahars are a prime example of underrepresentation.”

An attempt to divide

Others, however, argued that the judgement was divisive. “The judgement wants to create fissures within the Dalit community by saying that some Dalit groups have unscrupulously benefited from reservation,” said Prabhakar Nisargandh, an associate professor of sociology at Vijaysinha Yadav College in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur.

Among those who echoed this line of criticism are several mainstream political leaders: Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Prakash Ambedkar of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and Rajendra Pal Gautam of the Aam Aadmi Party. All three leaders belong to dominant SC communities. Mayawati and Gautam are from the Jatav caste while Ambedkar is from the Mahar caste. These castes are considered to have better representation than other Dalit communities in their states.

Acknowledging the disparity between Dalit communities, Ashok Bharti, chairman of the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations, said, “There are groups among Dalits who are more backward. But it is because of the failure of the governments. Why should we suffer for the failure of governments?”

Satish Prakash, an activist affiliated with the All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation, better known as Bamcef, expressed concern that sub-classification would further reduce Dalit and Adivasi representation in government jobs.

“There are already thousands of posts lying vacant because the governments say they could not find suitable candidates,” said Prakash, who lives in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. “Once sub-classification is done, this will become more rampant because Dalits with weaker educational backgrounds will get rejected.”

He added: “If the government is indeed sincere about the upliftment of these groups, it should first ensure that dropout rates in these groups are brought down.”

Ambiguity over criteria

Across the divide, however, there was agreement on one count: the lack of clarity on the criteria for sub-classification would make implementation difficult.

“How will they go about sub-classification? On the basis of income or population?” Xaxa asked. “But that’s not why reservations were put in place,” he added.

Nisargandh pointed out that the criteria for sub-classification has been left to state governments. “This will lead to more confusion and litigation because there is no empirical data to back sub-classification. In the absence of that, criteria set by state governments will be ambiguous,” he said.

In response to the Supreme Court judgement, some state governments have already announced that they will take steps to implement the verdict. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu welcomed the decision and pointed out that back in 1996, his government had formed a commission to make recommendations on sub-categorisation within the Scheduled Castes quota.

In neighbouring Telangana, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said that the Madiga community will be provided a separate quota in government job recruitment. If needed, the state government will introduce an ordinance to do this, he said.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also said that his government will implement sub-classification within quotas “through consultation and negotiation”.

Suman, the Musahar activist from Bihar, said sub-classification done “under political compulsions” will produce flawed outcomes. “We have seen that in Bihar when Nitish Kumar added the Teli community under [Extremely Backward Class] category, whereas data from the caste census shows that they should be [Other Backward Class].”

“In principle, this is a correct judgement but I doubt that this will get implemented properly,” he added. “Do you believe that the political parties will antagonise Dalit groups that have more representation at this moment?