Maratha Quota

Maratha Quota

Context: The protests in Maharashtra over Maratha quota intensified in the past week. We will understand about the issue here and understand why Marathas are demanding for reservation.

Background:
• The Marathas are a group of castes comprising peasants and landowners, among others, constituting nearly 33 per cent of state’s population.
• The issue is not new with first protest being held over 32 years ago.

Despite being dominant political force why do Marathas want reservation?
• The identification of majority of Marathas with “agrarian profession” has partly contributed to this demand.
• As long as agriculture was remunerative things were fine. But with families growing in size, land had to be bifurcated. Incomes dwindled and agriculture became increasingly less attractive. The decline of agriculture was not matched with the growth of industry, especially in the hinterland.
• The problem was compounded when in the post-Mandal era, poor Maratha families witnessed the dramatic rise of poorer-than-them families from society’s lower strata. They attributed the rise of Dalits and OBCs to reservation – rightly, in a way.
• It was the first trigger for the Marathas who thought of reservation as the only panacea to their problem.

Which other factors are likely contributors for continued demand for a Sarkari Naukri? (General discussion)
• An important factor relates to the popular perception that, rather than becoming less important, the state has actually become more important.
• There are talks of a market-led society and the spirit of free enterprise, but when this happens in a context of an overweening state presence in everyday life, people are tempted to be part of the state.
• There has no doubt been expansion of private enterprise over the last few decades, but it is accompanied by a situation where the state has abandoned its responsibility towards appropriate regulation of the market. For example, Weak labour laws.
• People realize that there is more respect and stability/security provided by state over private enterprises.

Conclusion
• In the Maratha quota stir the state government is in fix over what can be the right course of action. While politics will play its own course, it is duty of state government in co-ordination with private sector to provide the right jobs, eliminate corruption and listen to the demands of protestors!