‘Creamy layer’ not snatching pie, signals unfilled SC/ST posts data

New Delhi: While it is true that some sub-castes within scheduled castes and some tribes within scheduled tribes miss out on the benefits of reservation, a significant part of SC/ST quotas in govt jobs goes unfilled every year, raising the question of whether the ‘dominant’ sub-castes and tribes are really keeping the more deprived ones out. Data also shows that the proportion of unfilled posts increases as we move up the chain towards more senior posts.According to a 2023 report of the parliamentary committee on welfare of scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs), the only category of jobs in ministries and departments of the central govt where SCs and STs have a share larger than their quota of 15% and 7.5% respectively are the Group C jobs excluding safai karamcharis and an even larger share among safai karamcharis or sanitation workers.

More than one third (37%) of the safai karamcharis employed in central govt ministries are from scheduled castes and 7.4% are tribals. In comparison, in Group A jobs just 13% are SCs and 5.5% are STs. Due to the high representation of SCs and STs in lower categories of jobs, it looks like they more than fill their quota overall — 18.4% SCs and 7.4% STs in posts and services under the central govt.According to the Parliamentary report, in spite of special drives, relaxation in qualifying criteria and pre-promotional training, ministries or departments were unable to fill the thousands of backlog reserved vacancies. Thus, even with some ‘dominant’ scheduled castes or tribes taking advantage of the quotas, they remain unfilled year after year.Data available on 45 central universities also shows a similar pattern. SCs constituted under 11% of teaching posts and STs less than 5%. In non-teaching posts, SCs had a share of under 10% and STs just a bit over 5%. Once again, the shares are lowest in the senior most positions.“This fact is obfuscated by only talking of the overall representation of Dalits and tribals in govt jobs. There are thousands of unfilled posts in govt because the quotas are not being filled. Clearly, despite having a small section of relatively better off SCs, the govt is unable to fill the quota. It is estimated that barely 1.9% of SCs earn above Rs 50,000. Most of these would be in govt service as historically SCs have no assets, neither land nor businesses,” pointed out M S Nethrapal, an Indian Revenue Service officer who researches issues of Bahujan representation in jobs and education. He added that there was not enough data on the various sub-categories within SC, as data is only collected at a broad level for all SCs as a single category.The lack of sub-classification leading to the more deprived among SCs or STs missing out would hold true only if the quota was being filled. If the quota was not being filled, then nobody could be said to be missing out because someone else was getting through the quota. However, unlike in jobs/posts, the quotas usually get filled when it comes to seats in educational institutions run by govt, like medical colleges, engineering colleges and universities.Where quotas are being filled, many Dalit activists support sub-categorisation so that castes within the SC category that face greater marginalisation could take advantage of the quota and find representation. “Such sub-categorisation, however, has to be based on the extent of discrimination or marginalisation faced by a caste within the SC category. It cannot be based on an economic criteria as in the case of OBCs,” said Nethrapal.
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