Mandal Commission


The Mandal Commission or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission, was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward classes" of India. It was headed by B. P. Mandal, an Indian member of parliament, to consider the question of reservations for people to address caste discrimination, and to use eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine backwardness. In 1980, based on its rationale that OBCs identified on the basis of caste, social, economic indicators made up 52% of India's population, the commission's report recommended that members of Other Backward Classes be granted reservations to 27% of jobs under the central government and public sector undertakings and seats in the higher education institutions, thus making the total number of reservations for SC, ST and OBC to 49.5%.
Though the report had been completed in 1980, the V. P. Singh government declared its intent to implement the report in August 1990, leading to widespread student protests. As per the Constitution of India, Article 15 states, " Nothing in this Article or in clause of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any provision for the advancement of any socially or educationally backward classes of citizens or for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes". The Mandal Commission had therefore created a report using the data of the 1931 census, the last caste-aware census, extrapolated with some sample studies.
V. P. Singh was accused of using the Mandal Report despite it having previously been ignored by the Congress government. With almost 75% of the Indian population to receive preferential treatment in government employment, up from 25%, caused social unrest. Earlier 25% population of India which is Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, was covered and now, more than 25% of Other Backward Class came under reservation. The decision of V.P Singh government led to 1990 Mandal Commission protests. The upper caste youth went for massive protest in large numbers in the nation's campuses, resulting in self immolations by a student.
Indra Sawhney challenged the Mandal Commission and government decision to implement it in the Supreme Court in front of a nine Judge bench. The case was known as Indra Sawhney & Others v. Union of India. After hearing both sides the bench upheld the decision of government of reserving 27% of jobs under the central government and public sector undertakings with a provision that there will be ceiling of 50 per cent quotas and emphasized the concept of "social backwardness", and prescribed 11 indicators to ascertain backwardness. Also, the bench held that creamy layer of income will be applicable for the Other Backward Classes quota. Presently the creamy layer limit is Family income of lakhs per year. It was implemented in 1992.
The second recommendation of Mandal Commission to implement OBC reservations in higher educational institutions was implemented in 2006. The Union Minister of Human Resource Development at that time, Arjun Singh promised to reserve 27% seats for Other Backward Classes in All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, Indian Institute of Science and other central institutions of higher education. The Constitution Act 2005 that was introduced by the First Manmohan Singh ministry, granted a 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes in all Central Government institutions.
This decision of government led to 2006 Indian anti-reservation protests. The protests ended when on 10 April 2008, in the Ashoka Kumar Thakur v. Union of India case, the Supreme Court upheld the Ninety-third Constitutional Amendment and Central Educational Institutions Act, 2006, for the provision of 27% quota for candidates belonging to the Other Backward Classes in IITs, NITs, IIMs, AIIMS, IISc and other premier educational institutions.

Historical background of India

The primary objective that the Mandal Commission had in India was to Identify the conditions regarding social and educational backward classes to consider the question of reservations of seats and quotas.
Leading to the formation of the Mandal Commission, Indian society was based largely on the principles of Jaati and Varna, and to that extent a partially closed system. As the result of colonialism, the artisan and similar classes had been impoverished. This created a social stratification that played a dominant role within Indian society, laying the context for the Mandal Commission to be formed. Therefore, during the late 1900s India witnessed caste and class to stand for different patterns of distribution of properties/occupations for individuals. This directly affected Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes that were known collectively as Other Backward Classes, which were the focal groups that experienced the severities of colonial exploitation and the resultant caste/class stratification within the social organization found within traditional India.
The extent of how embedded the caste system is in India, coupled with the colonial impoverishment that many groups such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes experience, paved the path towards the Indian state to recognize/attempt to redress caste discrimination. Other Backward Classes have historically been excluded from opportunities and duties that lead to socioeconomic advancement in Indian society. The artisans, peasants, farmers, and owners of cottage industries bore the direct brunt of exploitation under the British Raj. Many self sufficient cottage industries were destroyed to serve colonial needs. The rise of industrialisation and globalisation changed the economic structures in rural India and was another factor leading to the impoverishment of the artisan classes. Combined with social mobility - social is hereditary, and marrying outside one's group is rare.
However, two different types of change that were prevalent during the lead up to the Mandal Commission was: Change in the relative positions of the groups in the caste hierarchy and the Change in how the tendency of how hereditary groups were ranked. Respectively, the first did not impair the caste system as a form of "social stratification" and the second type of change lead to the caste system to transform entirely. Educational background in relation to occupation between two generations were found to be directly correlated. Thus, educational facilities played a critical role among Other Backward Classes, and the opportunities for those who received poor/well education contributed to the overall social stratification of India. Additionally, the overlap between caste and economics became more apparent.

Setting up the Mandal Commission

Appointment of a commission to investigate the conditions of backward classes in India every 10 years, for the purpose of Articles 15. The First Backward Classes Commission had a broad-based membership, the Second Commission seemed to be shaped on partisan lines, composed of members only from the backward castes. Of its five members, four were from the OBCs; the remaining one, L.R. Naik, was from the Dalit community, and the only member from the scheduled castes in the commission. It is popularly known as the Mandal Commission for its chairman being Shri. B.P. Mandal.

Reservation policy

The Mandal Commission adopted various methods and techniques to collect the necessary data and evidence. In order to identify who qualified as an "other backward class," the commission adopted eleven criteria which could be grouped under three major headings: social, educational and economic. 11 criteria were developed to identify OBCs.

Social

  1. Castes/classes considered as socially backward by others,
  2. Castes/classes which mainly depend on manual labour for their livelihood,
  3. Castes/classes where at least 25 per cent females and 10 per cent males above the state average get married at an age below the 17 years in rural areas and at least 10 per cent females and 5 per cent males do so in urban areas.
  4. Castes/classes where participation of females in work is at least 25 per cent above the state average.

    Educational

  5. Castes/classes where the number of children in the age group of 5–15 years who never attended school is at least 25 per cent above the state average.
  6. Castes/classes where the rate of student drop-out in the age group of 5–15 years is at least 25 per cent above the state average,
  7. Castes/classes amongst whom the proportion of matriculates is at least 25 per cent below the state average,

    Economic

  8. Castes/classes where the average value of family assets is at least 25 per cent below the state average,
  9. Castes/classes where the number of families living in kuccha houses is at least 25 per cent above the state average,
  10. Castes/classes where the source of drinking water is beyond half a kilometre for more than 50 per cent of the households,
  11. Castes/classes where the number of households having taken consumption loans is at least 25 per cent above the state average.

    Weighting indicators

As the above deginal's family says that three groups are not of equal importance for the purpose, separate weightage was given to indicators in each group. All the Social indicators were given a weightage of 3 points each, educational indicators were given a weightage of 2 points each and economic indicators were given a weightage of 1 point each. Economic, in addition to social and educational Indicators, were considered important as they directly flowed from social and educational backwardness. This also helped to highlight the fact that socially and educationally backward classes are economically backward also.
Thus, the Mandal Commission judged classes on a scale from 0 to 22. These 11 indicators were applied to all the castes covered by the survey for a particular state. As a result of this application, all castes which had a score of 50% were listed as socially and educationally backward and the rest were treated as 'advanced'.