Question

OBC is a minority community.
A) True
B) False

Answer 1

Hint:
Beginning with Constituent Assembly debates, during the debate on Draft Article 10(3) which is the present Article 16(4) of the Indian Constitution, quite a few members commented on the term “backward class” mentioned in the draft Article and there were suggestions to delete the term or replace it with scheduled class. However, Chandrika Ram, member of Constituent Assembly from Bihar, eloquently explained both the scope and the need of the term in the following words.

Complete step by step solution:
Other backward caste is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally and socially disadvantaged.
OBC comprise 52% of the country’s population according to the mandal Commission report of 1980
41% in 2006 when the national sample survey organization took place.
Government initiatives:
1) 27% reservation in public sector employment and higher education has been provided to the OBCs.
2) The National Commission has been given constitutional status under constitutional status under article 338B.

Thus, the correct option is (A).

Note:
The Ministry of social justice and empowerment has been authorized to come up with the policies regarding the welfare of OBCs.
Former Judge of Supreme Court of India Justice Katju has claimed that OBC reservation is a fraud primarily on account of its delayed implementation in the nineties. According to him, while OBCs may have been backward at the time of independence, reservation was not implemented then but in the late nineties when it was not necessary. For till then, he claims, zamindari abolition laws had already led to an increase in the income of the OBCs. And they used this enhanced income to educate their children who in turn became doctors, engineers, lawyers, scientists, teachers etc. Thus, according to him, there is a need to do away with reservations.