The Congress Authorities in Karnataka will take a call on the findings of a survey report on the inhabitants of varied subcastes within the Scheduled Caste neighborhood within the state in a Cupboard assembly on August 7, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah introduced on Monday after receiving the survey report.
In March, the Justice H N Nagamohan Das Fee really helpful the survey of subcastes of Scheduled Castes to facilitate inner reservation among the many Dalits in Karnataka. “A report on the interior reservations has been given by Justice Nagamohan Das and his crew. They met me at the moment. We are going to place the report earlier than the Cupboard in a gathering to be held on August 7,” Siddaramaiah stated after assembly the fee.
The survey was undertaken towards the backdrop of the Supreme Court docket resolution of August 1, 2024, permitting sub-categorisation of the SC neighborhood within the nation to award inner quotas on the premise of the backwardness of the completely different Dalit communities.
“Sub-categorization is an extension of social justice. The state authorities has the facility to grant inner reservations. Sub-categorization doesn’t exclude anybody who’s experiencing reservation. Needed knowledge needs to be collected and subspecies needs to be categorised,” the state authorities stated in an announcement concerning the survey report.
In January 2025, the Karnataka Authorities constituted a fee underneath the chairmanship of Justice H N Nagamohan Das to review and submit a report on the interior reservation for Scheduled Castes within the state. The fee submitted an interim report on March 27 and requested a contemporary survey as a result of lack of correct knowledge within the state.
The door-to-door survey was carried out from Might 5 to July 6, 2025. The survey has coated 27,24,768 Scheduled Caste households and 1,07,01,982 folks, a report on the survey stated. The survey reportedly acquired poor responses in city areas.
The Supreme Court docket has recommended classification of subcastes on the premise of academic backwardness, lack of illustration in authorities employment, and social backwardness.
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“The accessible reservation (15 per cent) has been distributed by classifying the sub-castes of the Scheduled Castes as per the directions of the Supreme Court docket, after analyzing the info collected within the survey and picked up from authorities establishments. The report, survey knowledge, and appendices complete roughly 1,766 pages and 6 suggestions,” the Justice Nagamohan Das Fee stated on Monday.
The survey has seen Scheduled Caste leaders calling for neighborhood members to obviously state their subcastes among the many 101 SC castes in Karnataka.
The survey of subcastes is a part of efforts of the Congress Authorities to fulfil an electoral promise to offer inner reservations for socially weaker subcastes throughout the 15 per cent SC quota umbrella within the state.
Almost 43 per cent of respondents within the final census had designated themselves as belonging to the broad classes of Adi Dravida, Adi Karnataka, and Adi Andhra – with out specifying which of the 101 SC subcastes – like Madigas, Holeyas and others – they belong to.
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Amongst those that have typically recognized themselves underneath the broad SC umbrella of Adi Karnataka, Adi Andhra, and Adi Dravida – as a substitute of the particular subcaste that designates elements like touchability and untouchability within the Hindu caste system – are the road sweepers and rubbish cleaners in city areas in Karnataka.
In Karnataka, the SC neighborhood is broadly categorised underneath 4 heads – the SC Left (essentially the most backward just like the Madigas, who had been thought-about untouchables within the caste system): the SC Proper (just like the Holeyas, who’re much less backward and accepted by different castes); the touchable communities similar to Banjaras and Bhovis (who’re tribes in different states); and dozens of small SC communities categorised as others.
The caste survey of SC communities is required to establish the numbers in every of the subcastes underneath the broad SC classes to determine the division of the 15 per cent SC quota in authorities jobs, schooling, and political illustration, which is now reportedly hogged by upwardly cellular social teams within the SCs – just like the Holeyas within the SC Proper, and the touchable teams of Banjaras and Bhovis.
BJP effort to offer inner quotas for SC in Karnataka
The Justice Nagamohan Das fee was arrange in November 2024 by the Congress Authorities to submit suggestions on inner reservation for the SC communities within the wake of the earlier BJP Authorities arriving at an advert hoc quantity.
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In its time period between 2019 and March 2023, the BJP Authorities enhanced the SC quotas within the state from 15 to 17 per cent in 2022 and introduced inner reservation for SC communities in March 2023 by offering 6 per cent of the full of 17 per cent of SC quotas to the SC Left group comprising largely of the Madigas, 5.5 per cent to the SC Proper, 4.5 per cent to the touchables and one per cent to different SC teams.
The BJP Authorities mounted the interior quota on an advert hoc foundation by contemplating the 2011 caste census numbers and by contemplating some elements of the 2012 Justice A J Sadashiva Fee report on inner quotas – whereas rejecting the report.
Essentially the most backward Dalit teams just like the Madigas have been demanding the implementation of the Justice Sadashiva Fee report on account of the fee recommending 6 per cent for essentially the most backward SC Left group, 5 per cent for the backward SC Proper, 3 per cent for the SC “Touchable” group (Lambani, Bhovis, Korachas, Kormas), and 1 per cent for others.
Justice A J Sadashiva Fee’s findings
Among the many important findings of the Justice A J Sadashiva Fee, which had been made identified by a press launch in 2012, is that the Madiga neighborhood or the SC Left, who’re thought-about untouchables within the caste hierarchy in India, had been extra socially backward than the SC Proper just like the Holeyas, who’re thought-about extra acceptable in society.
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The fee additionally discovered that almost all of the 15 per cent reservation for 101 subcastes of Dalits in Karnataka was being cornered by the “Proper” Dalits like Holeyas and new SC teams like Bhovis, Lambanis, whereas essentially the most backward teams just like the Madigas remained disadvantaged.
Holeyas and Madigas are thought-about to make up almost one-third every of the SC inhabitants in Karnataka, with the numbers of the Madigas being about two per cent larger than that of Holeyas, the Justice Sadashiva Fee indicated in 2012 – primarily based roughly on census knowledge.
The BJP scheme of 2022-23 was seen as a mid-way scheme from the Justice Sadashiva suggestions to appease all SC teams. The scheme, nevertheless, backfired to some extent with the touchable teams within the SCs just like the Bhovis and Banjaras revolting towards the BJP within the 2023 polls over the lowered inner quota of 4.5 per cent allotted to them.
The BJP scheme was, nevertheless, not applied for the reason that mandate for altering inner quotas was vested with the Union Authorities previous to the August 2024 Supreme Court docket order, which stated the granting of inner reservation is a constitutional measure and that states can implement inner quotas for castes on the premise of empirical knowledge.
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The Karnataka Authorities determined in November 2024 to not situation any contemporary notification for presidency jobs till the finalisation of the interior reservation system for SCs.
The pondering within the Authorities whereas constituting the Justice Nagamohan Das Fee was that inner reservations for SCs primarily based on inhabitants numbers – like within the Sadashiva Fee report – are more likely to be struck down by the courts for need of correct knowledge.
“Within the wake of three many years of steady calls for and pressures for inner reservation within the state, the state Cupboard has agreed in precept to inner reservation in Scheduled Castes. There are 101 subcastes within the Scheduled Castes and the Authorities has determined to take all of them into confidence and scientifically implement inner reservation,” Siddaramaiah stated in 2024 when the Cupboard resolution for the brand new fee was taken.
The Karnataka chief minister has indicated that the Telangana Authorities had already constituted a fee on the identical mannequin for implementation of inner reservation and that knowledge is required for scientific implementation of inner reservation as directed by the Supreme Court docket.
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Inner quotas a political scorching potato
In a political sense, the SC inner quotas situation is a difficult topic for the Congress in Karnataka, which has historically drawn its assist from the SC Proper group, to which a lot of its outstanding leaders – Mallikarjun Kharge, G Parameshwara, H C Mahadevappa – all belong.
Whereas the SC Left has supported the Congress prior to now, many of those communities have moved in the direction of the BJP on account of the overall neglect by the Congress by way of political illustration and alternatives. Essentially the most outstanding SC Left chief within the Congress is Ok H Muniyappa, a seven-time MP and former Union minister.
The “touchables” within the SC group – just like the Banjaras and Bhovis – who had been aligned with the BJP prior to now are seen as having moved in the direction of the Congress in 2023 after the BJP’s unfulfilled inner quota train of 2022-23.