The State Government has given 16 per cent reservation to the Maratha Community and 5 per cent to Muslim Community in education and employment.
Although there are not many issues raised against reservation for Muslims, there was uproar over Maratha Reservation and it received much criticism on various grounds.
Of course, it was stood on a prejudiced platform, lacking adequate information.
Because the opinion of majority of people regarding the Maratha Community was based on wrong assumptions.
Opposing the reservation for Maratha Community is the result of spreading a misconception that it holds majority of land, strength and political power.
In reality, the percentage of people from this Community is large in the suicides of farmers holding small pieces of lands.
But this fact wasn't surfacing on public platforms to bring awareness.
The percentage of males as well as females of this Community is large in case of unskilled labor.
Moreover it also lags behind in the field of education.
Therefore it has caused a rise in the proportion of overall frustration and depression.
As a result, the amount of youth driven addicted to substance abuse in rural areas is seen to be on the rise.
Due to all this the Maratha Community is facing issues like financial crisis, ill-health.
Loss of land generation per generation, family conflicts over property, disinterest in education, no definite income in agriculture, and a community which because of all this has driven itself to substance abuse along with misfortune of taking up any job for a living - This is the current situation of it.
And yet, just because of few community brothers, the tags of 'landlords', 'rulers', and 'obnoxious people' are labelled to the whole Maratha Community.
Such an artificial and wrong representative picture of Marathas has always been shown in cinemas, plays, and many TV daily soaps and continues to be.
Therefore there is a growing dislike and prejudice towards this community in the minds of other communities.
The demand for reservation of the this Community and the success achieved after 10 years of struggle was followed by some scholars arguing without sense that the Maratha Community itself fell short in the competition.
Hence it was necessary to bring a clear picture of the matter.
Not just in Non-Marathas, but there are many misconceptions in the creamy layers of the Maratha Community regarding this issue, which needs to be clarified.
WHAT NUMBERS SAY? The financial, social and educational situation of Maratha Community is catastrophic.
The Rane Committee conducted survey to find a quantifiable data of Maratha Community.
For this survey, 10 percent villages in the state were systematically chosen as 'enumeration block'.
Accordingly, the survey of 4.
5 lakh families was undertaken.
Additionally, this information was made available online.
The process included a total of 18.
56 lakh people.
Such was the size of the sample survey.
Of these, 5.
97 lakh people were from it.
This meant that of the sample population, this Community constituted 32 per cent, and this amount was considered for further processing.
The outcome of this survey shook the assumptions regarding the Community.
It became clear that the Maratha Community is on a back foot in social, educational and financial fields.
The average size of a Maratha family came out to be 4.
7.
It is more than that of sample population which is 4.
5.
The sex ratio is alarmingly low.
There are 914 females for every 1000 males.
Of the families migrating for regular income, the Maratha families constitute 40.
7 per cent.
The profession of the earning male head of 46.
71 per cent Maratha families was either labor, or consisted of rough, physical hard work.
The percentage of inter-caste marriages in Maratha families is 23.
15.
The female re-marriage percentage is just 28.
62.
Based on criteria for superstitions, around 40.
85 per cent Marathas are found to be superstitious.
Maratha families running to voodoo-doers for snake-bite, dog-bite, scorpion-bite, jaundice or similar diseases are in large numbers.
Of the sample families, in illiterate females, the percentage of Maratha illiterate females is the highest at 58.
5.
Of the sample families in the survey, a total of 73 per cent of Maratha ration-cardholders lie either under the category of yellow (Below Poverty Line) cardholders or Orange (Low Income Groups) cardholders.
According to the survey 69.
8 per cent Maratha community resides in half-concrete houses.
5.
7 per cent families reside in weak housing.
The Maratha families earning around one lakh rupees a year turned out to be 89.
5 per cent.
It was found that 66.
62 per cent Maratha families took loans for amenities that are a must.
Loans taken for religious purposes were 43.
33 per cent, and for wedding ceremonies 53.
16 per cent Maratha families had taken loans.
Maratha families taking loans from Landlords are 54.
19 per cent.
Maratha families selling inherited properties to repay loans were 50.
13 per cent.
And the most unfortunate and affecting thing is that the percentage of people resorting to suicide because of failure in repaying loans came out to be 36.
26.
Let us have a look at the education part of it.
The representation of this Community in higher education is just 12 per cent which means that 20 per cent of the community is away from higher education.
Only 9.
12 per cent Maratha students are attempting medical studies.
Maratha students in government colleges on degree level for technical studies constitute 11.
84 per cent.
Moreover, the representation of Maratha students passed in the degree examinations of government aided colleges in the streams of Arts, Science, Commerce, Educational science, Finance and other administrative examinations was only 10.
93 per cent.
If we took under consideration all administrative post graduate courses then the average Maratha Students' percentage is only 4.
3.
Maratha percentage is terribly low in the administrative service sector.
The officials of this community in administrative, sub administrative services are only 14.
68 per cent which means 17 per cent short representation.
According to reference to the letter of the ordinary administration sector dated 7 May 2014, there is no single Maratha official serving directly under Indian Administrative Service.
Only four direct IAS were appointed in the last 60 years.
They are now retired.
This picture is horrifying.
Of the 144 posts in the Indian Forest Service, only one post is held by the Maratha official.
The percentage of Maratha community in the approved Group A of Maharashtra Government Service is 11.
80.
Only 14.
87 per cent Gazette Officers are Maratha.
The representation in all the groups is just 14.
68 per cent.
HISTORICAL REFERENCES Even after getting acquainted with this reality, it would be daring for anyone to say that the this community is a developed community and not a backward one.
The historical references also state the same.
Famous Socialist M N Shriniwasan has also stated in his book that Maratha, like the Yadavs of UP, Kurmis of Bihar and Lingayats of Karnataka, is an intermediate caste and not a developed one.
Like the Jaats in Rajasthan, who have been included in the NCBC list of the Government of India as OBC, they were mainly the Jaat farmers who took part in the social development movement.
Marathas are eligible for both these criteria.
90 per cent Marathas are farmers and they have taken part in social development movements.
The Supreme Court had observed while giving a positive verdict in favor of the Jaat reservation, that only those who are socially backward, take part in social development movements.
The huge gap between these actual statistics and illusion images led to a half-hearted demand for reservation for Maratha Community, around 10 years ago.
But now, various stances are seen despite the reservation made outside the range of reservation for OBCs and the creamy layer being left out.
Again, even if their targets are the few high-class, rich Marathas, whole Community is being held responsible for it.