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.
As the States have not been able to provide reservation to the OBCs in the local bodies in view of the Supreme Court’s insistence on local body-wise empirical data, as a prerequisite, which is not available for the time being, Mr. Wilson suggested to the Prime Minister to transfer the subject of census from the Union List to the Concurrent List so that the States too can conduct the census. He has also pointed out that the Centre has not yet made public the caste data compiled through the 2011 Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC).
G. Palanithurai, an expert on local bodies, says the OBC quota has not been an issue for Tamil Nadu and if it is sought to be implemented, the probability of the matter getting complicated through litigation will only be greater.
