The Congress government in Telangana hit two birds with its notification classifying the sub-groups among Scheduled Castes for extending reservation benefits to the poorest. It became the first state to do so since the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the process last year. It also gave a fillip to the nationwide attempt by the Congress to woo the sub-castes among the SCs. It is not lost on political parties that the massive SC segment is an attractive vote bank, which needs continued affirmative action to prise itself out of its economic morass.
In that sense, the Congress is the first off the block. But the BJP was never behind, considering Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly acknowledged the Madiga demand for better benefits during the last Telangana assembly campaign. The party also faces frequent pinpricks for not releasing the data of the Socio-Economic Caste Census the UPA government conducted in 2011 to enumerate the caste-wise population of the SCs.
Since then, the UPA and NDA governments have dished out innumerable schemes for those way below the poverty line, making do without empirical data to expand the safety net for the underprivileged. Tomorrow, other states may follow the Telangana example, but doubts about the numerical accuracy of the beneficiaries will linger. The government must, therefore, furnish the precise data on the Scheduled Castes across India to ensure none remains excluded from the sub-categorised quota benefits.
Importantly, Telangana's move highlights the presence of the creamy layer among the SCs. Sub-categorisation, in principle, claims to benefit the non-creamy layer. That is debatable. For an understanding of the creamy layer, which has prospered thanks to education and the ability to compete in the open category, consider that a large section of this layer is only marginally better off than the poorest.
Parameters like vehicle or house ownership currently employed do not distinguish between the two layers; many migrating labourers who left small farms and huts in search of jobs belong to both. Unless the sub-categorisation is based on precise, actual data, the fear of injustice to those who only technically fall in the creamy layer is real. However, economic affirmation of the Scheduled Castes through microscopic sub-categorisation alone cannot help in their inclusion without unconditional social acceptability. That is the real challenge.