In Tamil Nadu, data on quota is a Pandora’s Box, Debate over reservation shows ongoing issues with data transparency in T.N.: Debate over reservation shows ongoing issues with data transparency in T.N. T. Ramakrishnan ramakrishnan.t

The Hindu: Opinion: Monday, 12 August 2024.
Politics over reservation in education and public employment is nothing new to Tamil Nadu. The State is one of the early movers with regard to the quota, having introduced it over 100 years ago. But, the absence of quantifiable data on community-wise representation under Backward Classes (BC) and Most Backward Classes (MBC)-Denotified Communities (DNC) categories has been a subject matter of debate since the quantum of reservation was hiked to 50% in 1980. In the State, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have 18% and 1% reservations, respectively. The overall 69% quota was, through a 1994 Act, protected under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

A demonstration in Chennai to press for 20% reservation for
Vanniyars in government jobs and higher education.
File | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The question over the data has been addressed partially through the publication of the State Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department’s reply to a query under the RTI on the representation of Vanniyars and the rest within the exclusive 20% quota for MBC-DNCs over the last 10-odd years. The query, made in 2023, got a reply on July 31. The timing of the reply was significant, as the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), a chief advocate for the 10.5% separate reservation for the Vanniyars, had been pressing the government to issue an interim report on the issue, in view of reports that the State Backward Classes Commission had sought a one-year extension to make a recommendation on the internal reservation for the Vanniyars within the MBC-DNCs’ share.
It all began with the previous AIADMK regime, which, on the eve of the announcement of the Assembly election schedule in February 2021, got a reservation law passed by the House and cleared by the then Governor.
Citing “extreme backwardness” of Vanniyars (who, in turn, encompass seven sub-castes Vanniyar, Vanniya, Vannia Gounder, Gounder or Kander, Padayachi, Palli and Agnikula Kshatriya), the Special Reservation Act of 2021 had assigned 10.5% to this community, apart from 7% for 25 MBCs and 68 DNCs, and 2.5% for the remaining 22 MBCs. The law was first quashed by the Madurai Bench in Madras High Court in November 2021, and the Supreme Court upheld the decision in March 2022. In its judgment, the court saw “no substantial basis” for classifying Vanniyars into one distinct group for internal reservation. Now, only the BC Muslims have been given a 3.5% reservation under the BC quota.
Since then, the PMK and other pro-Vanniyar activists have been demanding the restoration of the 10.5%. On July 24, PMK founder S. Ramadoss demanded an interim report on the work done by the State government and the Backward Classes Commission in 18 months. The RTI query revealed that Vanniyars were well ahead of the rest of the MBCs and DNCs in terms of representation in higher education and public employment. For example, with respect to admission to the MBBS, 5,938 candidates belonging to the MBC-DNCs were selected during 2018-22, both under the 20% exclusive reservation and open competition. Of them, Vanniyars accounted for 3,354. Likewise, of the 893 MBC-DNC candidates who qualified in the examination held by the Teachers Recruitment Board in 2021 for postgraduate assistants in government schools, 533 were from the community.
But, PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss dismissed the data as “incorrect” and demanded that the government release a White Paper on the representation of all communities within the MBC-DNCs in education and jobs since 1989. While the data sought to show that the Vanniyars’ share within the 20% quota was above 10.5%, the PMK leader, relying on the data sourced by his party, contended that the share of Vanniyars in directly recruited Group I posts was much lower than 10.5%. The ruling DMK and the PMK differ on one other issue too. During the recently-held Assembly session, on June 26, the House adopted a resolution, proposed by the CM, urging the Centre to conduct a caste-based Census along with the general Census. However, the PMK argues that the State government itself can hold a socio-economic survey.
The episode has underscored the need for making public, at the earliest, the data on the break-up of caste-wise and Group-I-wise representation of all communities in education and employment under the 69% quota scheme and all the government’s replies under the RTI Act, just as the Ministry of External Affairs has been doing for years.