On February 20, the Maharashtra Assembly passed a Bill that granted 10 percent reservation in government jobs and education to the Maratha community. Eknath Shinde, the Chief Minister introduced the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Bill, 2024. The Chief Minister expressed that he was able to fulfill the promise of creating a foolproof Maratha quota.
The New Bill of the Maratha Quota Law
The New Bill does not touch the OBC quote that is existent. Moreover, the bill does not bother the earlier notification of the Maharashtra government on the issuance of the Kunbi caste certificates. Therefore, the non-kunai caste will be covered as per the new law. This makes the Maratha community eligible for reservations in two distinct categories for the very first time ever.
However, it is important to note that those individuals who belong to the backward class but are highly advanced economically, educationally, or socially, will not be given this benefit.
The new bill has been created on the basis of a report of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission. Around 1,58,20,264 families across the State have been surveyed in the report. The report suggested that exceptional circumstances justify the grant of reservations to the Maratha community beyond the limit of 50 percent as opined by the Supreme Court. The report suggested that the Maratha community constituted over 28 percent of the complete population of the State. A total of 84 percent of these actually qualify as not advanced. It was thus opined that such a large chunk of the backward class can't be made to fit into the reserved categories already existing. However, the decision of how much percentage should be granted was left to the discretion of the State government.
The Commission suggested that over 94 percent of farmers who took their lives in the state were actually from the Maratha community. Various reasons have been pointed out by the commission behind the decline in the status of Marathas. Reduction in agricultural income, extreme poverty, and land-holding partitions are some of these reasons.
The state of Maharashtra has 52 percent of reservations already. This percentage is split into various categories, namely 13 percent for Scheduled Castes, 19 percent for Other Backward Classes, and 7 percent for Scheduled Tribes. 2.5 percent for Nomadic Tribe B, and 3 percent for Vimukta Jati. Another 2 percent of this reservation is meant for the Special Backward Classes, 3.5 percent for Nomadic Tribe C, and another 2 percent for Nomadic Tribe D. Moreover, the Economically Weaker Sections also get the reservation of 10 percent. The inclusion of the new quote will make the total percentage of reservations for the state of Maharashtra to be 72 percent.
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