For job’s sake, Yogesh Kumar could embrace Islam

JAIPUR: Twenty-year-old Yogesh Kumar from

Barwasi

village of Nawalgarh block in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan says he’s happy to embrace Islam if that will assure him a proper caste certificate. “I belong to the Rana caste. We have long been conducting our lives like Rajputs, who are Hindu. A notification was issued in 1997 listing the Nagarchi, Damami, Rana and Baiti (Barot) castes as Other Backward Castes. There are both Muslims and Hindus in these caste groups. In 2013, after one Habib Ahmed Damami approached the government saying his forefathers had converted at the time of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, the government issued orders that recognizes only Muslims in these groups as

OBC

. The proposal was for Hindus to get Scheduled Caste status, but that has not happened,” says Yogesh Rana.

Rana has been applying for jobs, and his peculiar caste situation is proving a big hurdle in landing a government job. He had earlier been selected for the Central Reserve Police Force but could not produce appropriate caste documents.

The department of social justice on September 13, 2013 recommended that Hindus in these four caste groups be granted Scheduled Caste status. That recommendation has not been acted upon yet. Meanwhile, Nagarchis and Damamis are counted as OBC even in the Central list for Rajasthan.

“I would willingly embrace Islam. But in a free nation, why should anyone have to do that?” Kumar asked TOI. “I tweeted my troubles to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 16 last year. I have followed up with letters through registered post, not just to the prime minister but also to the state governor and to Thanwarchand Gehlot, Union minister for social justice. I have personally met state minister for social justice, Arun Chaturvedi, who told me that I should have no qualms in accepting Islam,” Kumar told TOI. “I imagined the prime minister would be more receptive – he is a great orator, but not so great a listener,” he says.

On April 23, Kumar will be taking examinations in Delhi to enter the Border Security Force. He also has examinations lined up for Delhi Police in May. “I have to see that my documents are in order as soon as possible,” he says.

The 20-year-old is flummoxed by the situation. He smiles despite the anxiety. His OBC certificate from the state government lists him as “non-Muslim” (gair Muslim). “This certificate complicates matters – what religion will I fill when I apply for a job? And in any case, this certificate would only count if the caste group is listed as OBC in the list with the Centre,” Kumar says. There are some 30 members of his caste in his village alone. “We are a small group, with less than a lakh people across the state -- we cannot muster the kinds of protests that the Jats and Gujjars can.”

Arun Chaturvedi, state minister for social justice could not be reached on phone as he was attending a public function. Additional chief secretary in the department for social justice Ashok Jain was travelling.


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