The Supreme Court has held it valid under our Constitution to reserve one-tenth of all government jobs and educational seats for applicants from economically weaker families, but ineligible for any caste quota. Such a policy was unveiled by India’s political leadership in 2019. It extended affirmative action beyond redressing social discrimination, its prominent role in a caste-dominated country, and sparked the post-Mandal quota debate. Given the surge in identity claims, we may eventually need our slice-up of jobs and seats to fully reflect Indian diversity. A financial status test for eligibility, however, pushes our reservation policy into a new realm, categorizing citizens into ‘Economically Weaker Sections’ (EWS) and what constitutes such weakness. This is an exercise in which arbitrary cut-off cannot be avoided. What makes it more complicated is the fact that economic conditions are a dynamic variable in an economy with rapid growth and high inflation. This makes it difficult to precisely target its benefits.
So, what makes a candidate eligible for EWS selection? On the basis of identity, one should not be eligible for a job or seat set aside for any caste group or class with a separate quota. After that, to qualify as financially weak, the gross income of one’s family in the previous financial year must be less 8 lakhs. Whereas property limits include family ownership of agricultural land (must be less than 5 acres), an apartment (less than 1,000 sq ft) and a residential plot (either less than 100 or 200 sq yards depending on its location) The earnings share continues to confuse EWS inclusion limits as the exclusion level for India’s Other Backward Class (OBC) quotas, for which the proposed rationale (three decades ago) was to exclude the ‘creamy layer’ of superior OBC households. was required to do. Today’s Annual Income 8 lakh per household, as per the new policy, serves as the official marker of general deprivation. Meanwhile, the OBC cut-off is set for another upward revision taking into account inflation.
With rupees losing their true value over time, the cream can turn sour quickly. Who is good or who is bad shows very little consistency. whereas . monthly earning of 66,000 may have written off two decades ago, but are now deemed too low to qualify for special assistance. A decade later, it could possibly be taken as a small part. Yet, our income tax policy, which aims to leave out all but the better off, has not kept pace. For non-seniors, tax liability begins as soon as a person earns more annually 2.5 lakhs. Even for a family with double income, it is less than the EWS limit. Such a house is weak, it seems, but not weak enough to be taxed. The hat doesn’t square off with the other data sets. A recent survey by People Research on India’s Consumer Economy, for example, bracketed households based on different consumption patterns and identified India’s ‘middle class’ as households with an annual income of Rs. Done in 5 lakhs onwards 30 lakh (at 2020-21 prices). An estimated 30% of all households last year, many of which are considered vulnerable in terms of income. So are the ‘aspirants’, a section of families who earn 1.25 Lakh onwards 5 lakh and make up 52% of our total, and there are also the ‘destitute’ who earn less and account for 15% (as that study found). While a large proportion of our low-earning households are likely to be covered by caste-based quotas before 2019, it is clear that the filters of the EWS quota are set to cater to a large section of the rest. The irony is how little such a wide gate does to improve their chances of success.
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