What is Indias population of other backward classes?
From correspondents in Delhi, India, 03:45 PM IST New Delhi – Even as the government has decided to extend 27 percent reservation in institutions of higher education to other backward classes (OBCs) from June 2007, it is yet to ascertain the precise population of this community. According to government sources, there are several figures floating around that seek to ascertain what percentage of India’s 1.17 billion population belongs to this section of the society. The latest census, conducted in 2001, did not collect information on OBCs. When the question on the size of OBC population was placed before Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh recently, he did not have the precise figures. ‘I think, that should be decided by people who are more knowledgeable. But the point is the OBCs form a fairly sizeable percentage of our population,’ the minister said. ‘There is no final, conclusive empirical evidence of the size of OBCs in India. That could have come only from the census,’ s
