Paharis in J-K to get ST status: Know about the first-of-its-kind quota in India and why Gujjars, Bakerwals are vexed
Amit Shah also said there will be no decline in ST quota of Gujjars and Bakerwals and Paharis and everyone will get their share.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday announced that the Pahari community in Jammu and Kashmir, besides the Gujjars and Bakerwals, will get reservation benefits in accordance with the recommendations of the Justice Sharma Commission which examined the issue of quota.
Shah also said there will be no decline in ST quota of Gujjars and Bakerwals and Paharis and everyone will get their share.
This means that the Pahari community, besides Gujjars and Bakarwals, will soon get reservation in education and jobs as Scheduled Tribe. The ST status to Paharis in the Union Territory will be the first instance of a linguistic group earning reservations in India.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to Paharis, a long-pending demand of the community mostly residing in Rajouri and Poonch in the Jammu region and Baramulla in north Kashmir.
The central government will have to amend the Reservations Act in Parliament for that.
The population of Paharis in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is estimated to be around 6 lakh, of whom 55 per cent are Hindus and rest Muslim.
The Gujjars and Bakerwals, who follow Islam, constitute 40% of the population in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, with the rest living in these areas identifying themselves as Paharis. With a population of nearly 15 lakh as per the 2011 Census, the Gujjars and Bakerwals form the third largest ethnic group in J&K after Kashmiris and Dogras.
Since April 1991, they have enjoyed benefits of 10 per cent reservation for STs in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions.
The Paharis have been demanding that they should get the same as they live, like the Gujjars and Bakerwals, in the tough and backward terrain of Pir Panjal region, besides Baramulla and Anantnag districts. The Gujjars and Bakerwals, however, contest Paharis getting the ST tag, mainly on the ground that the latter are not an ethnic group but a conglomerate of different religious and linguistic communities.