All India Radio – Agitation of Jat Community

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AGITATION OF JAT COMMUNITY

Recently Jat community in Haryana are agitating for reservation in central government Jobs and universities. The agitation is not new to the government as incidents like this has happened before. However this time the community has become more violent blocking transport and vandalising public property causing huge loss to the exchequer and disrupting public’s day to day lives. 4 people have lost their life so far in this agitation.

Jats constitute roughly 30 percent of the population in Haryana, making them the most politically influential community. The community is involved in agriculture since ages and now wants to move out to non agricultural sectors given the facts of declining returns in agriculture and many other socio cultural and economic factors. Even though Jats are given quota in state government, the crux of the agitation is about getting quota in central government domain which is hardly under state government, who otherwise can recommend central government for inclusion of jats in central OBC list.

Various census made by state government to determine the status of Jats has shown that Jats are indeed socially and educationally backward section in Haryana. This has made the agitation to reach new heights in recent times.

Firstly Intellectuals are of the view that, post sachhar evaluation committee suggested to have a sub quota under OBC (Maha Backward class) to include Jats and various other backward communities under central OBC quota.

Secondly it is the duty of the government to convince the masses that the reservation is not the only way for upliftment of the backward communities. Given the advent of private sector in education, manufacturing, it is necessary to highlight that after globalisation the role of state in social upliftment has drastically reduced leaving wide range of opportunities in private sector.

Thirdly it is also necessary for political establishments to analyse the issue of historical deprivation of various communities sensibly within the framework of constitution having robust information base, so that nobody is left behind in development story.

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