Jat Agitations

In the light of the recent peaceful protests, unlike the rather violent ones in January 2016, from the much-dominant Jat community in Haryana, the question arises as to what can be the reasons responsible for the backwardness of the Jats in the region.

The Issue – The Demands from the Jat Community

It all started in 2016, when violent protests from the Jats in Haryana broke out demanding to be included in the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) list. The National Commission for Backward Classes, in the past, had given specific reasons against the inclusion of Jats in the OBC list. But as the political game in the country goes, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government revoked this decision by putting forward an official notification in March 2014 whereby they promised the Jat community a “special quota” which will beyond the 27% reservation for OBCs in education and government jobs. This issue was then moved to the Supreme Court who did nothing but squash their dreams of being included in the OBC list in 2015, stating that “caste” alone is not reason enough for determination of socio-economic backwardness.

Even though the demands failed to make any possible fundamental or legal sense, the Jats were still encouraged to continue with their protests. They were taking cue from the successful past incidents that established an important segment of the Mandal Commission recommendations executed for the last 25yrs, excluding the cases of Dalits and Adivasis. The Jats were even more strengthened because of the fact that even the BJP, currently in power, had also supported the notification in 2014.

Reason behind wanting to be “Backward” from “Prosperous”

The Jats are considered to be one of the elite land-owning classes in Haryana who are significantly high up on the “social ladder”. Their social as well as political powers are equally apparent from the influence they have over the rural areas and also in the leadership of the dominant political parties in the State. Abuse against the Dalits and other backward communities of the State are most often than not carried out by the Jats themselves. In addition to all these, if we look at some statistics, we can see that Jats form 29% of Haryana’s total population and owns 3/4ths of the State’s total land.

So why do these “zamindars” want the “backward” tag, especially when a considerable part of the Community in itself is not convinced about the “wretched condition of poor rural Jats” and the practicality of the “backward” tag?

• Failed agricultural dominance – the Agricultural Census of 2010 reveals that the average land holding of an individual in Haryana has gone down from 1.74hectares in 1995-96 to 1.57hectares in 2010, decreased by about 10%. This means that land holdings in Haryana have become more scattered over the years with farmers now owning less land to farm on, thereby resulting in lower income per capita from agriculture.
• Not materializing private sector jobs – for many Jat youths who have moved away from the rural areas into the city to try their luck were left disappointed by the job market in the city. In comparison to the people residing in urban localities, the youths from rural places, in most cases, did not possess the kind of English-based education that enables the access to services like IT and other MNC opportunities. As a result they were left with huge debts and ultimately had to rely on unskilled jobs with a not-so-good pay.
• More pay in public sector jobs as well as more competition – Lower level jobs at the Government sector pays much more than those of the private sector. As per the 7^th Pay Commission Report, the monthly salary of a General helper, who is the lowest ranked Government job employee, is Rs.22579, which is more than two times of that of the public sector salary of Rs.8000-9500. Along with this, 49.5% of the public sector jobs are already reserved by SCs (22.5%), STs (22.5%) and the OBCs (27%). So the Jats (who currently falls under the General category) can see the competition very clearly in the public sector.
• Failed business opportunities – It is also difficult for the Jats to branch out into other economic ventures like proprietary business as strong entry barriers are already maintained by the traditional business classes. The Jats also do not possess to requisite skills and means of entry into the business networks. This is evident from the fact that some of them even failed to enter into business that is related to agriculture like business of trading grains or vegetables. Furthermore, chances in real estate within the Jat community made them to believe that even though they have gained power in the short run by selling their land, they have actually lost major power, in the long run, to those who benefitted from the economic liberalization. Apart from all these, there persists some notion among the Jats about the status of jobs like constructions or daily workers, that prevents them venturing into new economic opportunities.

Even though the Haryana Government is planning to introduce the Bill, giving OBC status to the Jats, it will not be accepted in good faith by the other 74 castes who are already enlisted under the OBC category in Haryana. Like many others, they also consider Jats as the land-owning class of people, who are not so different from the Bania trader community in terms of wealth and prosperity. So it can be understood that if the Bill is passed, the situation for the Jats will become better but the same cannot be said about the others castes enlisted as OBC in Haryana.

Conclusion

From the above discussion it is very much apparent that the whole situation of the Jat community being granted with the OBC status is nothing but an “election sop” gone horribly wrong. India has more than the requisite number of people engaged in agriculture. The excess labor needs to be channelized away from agriculture and into the creation of numerous semi-skilled and unskilled jobs. But the fact of the matter is that India is not exactly know to be “labor-intensive” economy and its consequences are now cropping up  and this is one of the major problems that India is facing today – the shortage of proper jobs.