Affirmative inaction

While the government is keen on pushing reservation for OBCs in both education as well as in private sector jobs, its own track record is less than perfect.

The Ministry of Personnel’s website that has details of the number of appointments the government has made in this category, has the information only until January 1, 1998.

Over 19 per cent of all central government employees on this date were SC and over 6 per cent were ST. The proportions, however, are much lower in the higher groups — in Group A, for instance, under 10 per cent are SC and 3 per cent ST. No data is available for OBC recruits.

In the case of central PSUs, the proportion of SC in the Group A jobs is 12.6 per cent (as on January 1, 2005), ST’s are nearly 4 per cent and OBCs 6.3 per cent.