Backward Classes Commission

Why in news?

The Union cabinet recently decided to replace the existing National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) with a new constitutional body, named the National Commission for the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (NCSEBC).

How NCSEBC is different from NCBC?

• NCSEBC will be a constitutional body (like the commissions for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes) rather than a statutory body, like the NCBC.
• Though this has less practical distinction, it could have important political implications.
• A modest agenda will limit itself to placing the NCSEBC on par with the National Commission for the Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and the National Commission for the Scheduled Tribes (NCST).
• This would require amendments to the Constitution, introducing additional Articles comparable to the existing Articles 338 and 338A (which establish the NCSC and NCST respectively), and 341 and 342.
• These changes shift responsibility for amending the list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from the government to Parliament.
• It also effectively takes away the power that the states currently have to determine their own OBC lists.

What will be the impact?

• This does not alter the basic rules of the game, namely the definition of the category “socially and educationally backward classes” and the existing limit of 50% on the total share of various reservation quotas.
• Now that Parliament would have to decide whether to grant OBC status, it would no longer be possible for opposition parties to stoke agitations without bearing responsibility for the consequences.
• The burden of handling the inevitable conflicts arising from a zero sum situation could also be shifted from the ruling party to Parliament. A
• A Zero sum situation arises where the entry of new castes necessarily implies a decline in the share of castes already included.

Source: The Indian Express