56% OBCs Stand When Upper Castes Pass: Madhya Pradesh To Court In Quota Case

The Madhya Pradesh government's affidavit in the Supreme Court in the OBC reservation opens with a contradiction. The document glorifies ancient India as a casteless, merit-based society and blames foreign invasions for introducing hierarchy and discrimination. It celebrates the Vedic era as one of harmony and equality, but later attributes India's economic decline to caste-based exploitation of farmers and artisans -- an injustice it earlier claimed did not exist.

This forms the foundation of the government's legal defence of its plan to hike OBC reservation in the state to 27 per cent. This defence is wrapped in the rhetoric of nation-building and the slogan "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas".

And the backdrop to this report is frequent instances of caste discrimination in Madhya Pradesh. In the latest such incident, a young man from the OBC Kushwaha community was forced to wash the feet of a Brahmin man over an AI-generated image in Damoh.

NDTV has accessed portions of the state government's 15,000-page affidavit, which reveals that such incidents are far from isolated. The affidavit not only acknowledges the persistence of caste-based discrimination across Madhya Pradesh but also recommends sweeping structural reforms, including 35 per cent reservation for OBCs in education and government jobs and a 50 per cent quota for OBC women in welfare schemes such as Ladli Behna and Ladli Beti.

The rationale is clear: when over half of OBC women still survive on manual labour, social justice cannot afford to remain gender-blind.

A confidential 2023 survey conducted by Dr BR Ambedkar Social Science University in Mhow is part of the government's submission. The report captures the scale of caste discrimination in the state.

Out of nearly 10,000 families surveyed across rural and urban Madhya Pradesh, 5,578 -- nearly 56 per cent -- admitted that when a so-called upper-caste person passes their house, they cannot stay seated on a cot or platform and must stand up as a mark of "respect". Also, 3,797 families said untouchability persists in their villages, with caste-specific neighbourhoods demarcated to keep them apart from so-called upper castes. 3,763 families reported that those from so-called upper castes do not eat with them, and 3,238 families said priests refuse to perform religious rituals at their homes, citing caste.

The report's findings extend beyond social segregation. 5,697 families (about 57 per cent) said people from their caste or community are not appointed as priests in temples or heads of monasteries and ashrams, and 5,123 families believe they are denied entry into religious educational institutions. Another 2,957 families said they are not even considered eligible to pursue priesthood courses. In several districts, the report notes, "who may touch the altar, who may chant, and who may serve God" are still determined not by faith, but by birth. The authors note that despite constitutional safeguards, caste remains the single most powerful determinant of dignity, occupation, and opportunity in Madhya Pradesh.

Economic and educational findings of the survey are equally grim. Over 76 per cent of those surveyed had not studied beyond Class 12, just 15.6 per cent were graduates and 8.1 per cent postgraduates. The report links this educational and occupational gap to chronic poverty. About 94 per cent of families said they took loans for weddings, farming, or children's education, and only 27 per cent live in permanent houses. Despite working primarily in agriculture and crafts, nearly half of those surveyed blamed industrialisation and mechanisation for destroying livelihoods. Others said social prejudice against manual labour has forced them out of work.

The study highlights that in more than 50 per cent of OBC households, women are engaged in daily wage or agricultural labour, making them the most vulnerable within an already marginalised community. It recommends targeted protection for them through 50 per cent reservation in women-oriented schemes like Ladli Behna and Ladli Beti, arguing that such affirmative action would correct both caste and gender imbalance.

Social exclusion also extends into everyday rituals of life and death. More than half the families surveyed said so-called upper caste people refuse to share home-cooked meals with them, and 38 per cent said they are denied even drinking water. About 61 per cent reported that Brahmin priests do not perform last rites or naming ceremonies in their community, and 52 per cent said they have no access to religious education. These are not isolated grievances, the report cautions, but symptoms of a society that continues to police dignity through caste.

The affidavit by the Madhya Pradesh government before the Supreme Court argues that these data points offer empirical proof that the Other Backward Classes remain among the most deprived social groups in the state. It also calls for a new social policy framework to dismantle caste barriers across rural and urban areas, supported by continuous awareness campaigns and administrative monitoring.

Madhya Pradesh is pushing to increase OBC reservation from 14 per cent to 27 per cent. This will take the state's total reservation beyond the 50 per cent cap decided by the top court.

The state government has justified this move, citing "extraordinary circumstances" and arguing that OBCs constitute over the state's population but remain severely underrepresented in government jobs and educational institutions.