The demand for quota in local bodies for Other Backward Classes (OBC), a lively issue elsewhere in the country, may not have much relevance for Tamil Nadu, going by the official data on the representation of women for the post of heads of rural local bodies.
Of 7,054 women presidents of village panchayats, 1,864 belong to the Backward Classes (BC); 1,119 to Most Backward Classes (MBCs) and 35 to denotified communities (DNCs). The share of the BC/MBC/DNCs is nearly 43%. In respect of women chairpersons of panchayat unions (totalling 246), BCs account for 104, MBCs 47 and DNC one, with the total share being around 62%. The case is more or less the same with regard to 20 women heads of district panchayats, where 10 are from the BCs and three from the MBCs.
P. Wilson, DMK Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), who recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of quota for OBCs in local bodies, acknowledged that his demand is not in relation to Tamil Nadu but concerns States such as Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, and the Union Territory of Puducherry where, he said, OBCs were “not being allowed” to contest in the local bodies.
