The Hindu : Kerala News : Reservation: facts and figures

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Reservation: facts and figures

By C. Gouridasan Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 19. The Narendran Commission's effort to map the reservation scenario in Kerala was indeed ambitious and the figures culled by it from diverse sources reveal that overall, backward communities have fared well with reservation, though specific communities were yet to receive the benefit of the reservation in full.

The commission had assessed the representation for backward communities in Government departments, public sector undertakings, autonomous bodies and institutions under the Government such as universities.

It had attempted to look at the level of representation for each community at six levels within the four groups of institutions studied by it (four in the case of PSUs) so as to assess the representation for each community at the junior-most, middle and senior levels and left out privately owned institutions such as aided schools and colleges.

As reported in these columns on Monday, the Commission's analysis of the data had revealed that in Government departments and the judiciary together, 1,57,008 out of the total 3,25,554 employees belonged to backward communities resulting in their getting 48.23 per cent of the jobs against their collective reservation quota of 40 per cent.

The share of the forward communities, the analysis revealed, was 38.73 per cent. Going deeper, the commission found that though the backward communities had exceeded their reservation quota, the spread of the reservation pie was uneven among various backward communities and within communities, among different categories of employment.

According to the commission, Ezhavas have far exceeded their quota in all the six categories analysed by it and secured 20.41 per cent of all jobs in Government departments. In the case of Muslims, the total share of jobs is 10.45 per cent.

In category I, Muslims have exceeded the quota marginally (10.3 per cent against quota of 10 per cent), but have fallen short in respect of the remaining five categories. Against a quota of 12 per cent, the community has secured only 10.66, 9.85, 11.63, 9.94 and 9.71 per cent in categories 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Nadars have a total of 1.90 per cent in all the categories taken together, their representation fallen short marginally in category one (2.83 against 3 per cent). The shortfall is sharper in the other categories.

Viswakarmas have got a total of 2.91 per cent representation in all the categories together and have exceeded their quota in three out of the six categories. Dheevaras have a total representation of 1.18 per cent in all the categories together. The community has exceeded its quota in two categories.

Latin Catholics, including Anglo-Indians, have got a total of 3.14 per cent in all the categories together against their quota of 4 per cent. Scheduled Caste converts to Christianity have got a total representation of 0.78 per cent in all the categories together and have fallen short of their quota in all of them.

Sixty-eight other communities grouped together by the commission have got a total representation of 7.46 per cent. In category I, their representation is 8.97 per cent against their quota of 6 per cent. In category II, their representation is 7.22 per cent against their quota of 3 per cent. In categories III, IV, V and VI, their representation is 6.48 per cent, 5.65 per cent, 6.88 per cent and 5.34 per cent respectively against their quota of 3 per cent.

In the case of PSUs, the commission found that as on August 1, 2001, 54,984 out of 1,13,640 employees belonged to the backward classes (48.38 per cent against a quota of 40 per cent) and 41,863 to forward classes (36.84 per cent). The percentages relating to universities showed a picture somewhat favouring the forward communities with 4,470 (45.86 per cent) employees belonging to the forward communities and 4,384 (44.98 per cent) belonging to the backward classes.

The situation is least distorted in the case of autonomous institutions with the backward classes together getting 41.45 per cent of the 21,334 jobs and the forward communities getting 51.09 per cent of the jobs.

(Concluded)

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