Stirring The Caste Cauldron: Congress Government In Karnataka Moves To Bring CM's Own Kuruba Community Under Schedule Tribe Category

Congress government in Karnataka on Thursday recommended to the Union Government to include the Kuruba community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list of the state.

P Manivannan, principal secretary of the social welfare department, on Thursday wrote to Anil Kumar Jha, secretary of the Union Ministry of tribal affairs, to initiate necessary steps to include Kurubas in the ST list as per the report submitted by the Karnataka State Tribal Research Institute (KSTRI) in Mysuru.

"The Cabinet discussed the report and agreed to forward it to the Government of India. Hence, the report is submitted for taking appropriate action to include the Kuruba community in the Scheduled Tribes list of the state," Manivannan said. 

Study By KSTRI And Long Pending Demand

In April 2019, KSTRI was directed by the state government to commission an ethnographic study of the Kuruba community in Karnataka. The study focussed on the community's lifestyle, culture, language, food habits and attire. As part of the study, KSTRI surveyed select Kuruba-dominated villages and towns across 26 districts in the state, except Bidar, Yadgir, Kalaburagi and Kodagu districts.

The Union Government has evolved a five-point criterion that needs to be met for a particular community to be included in the ST category -distinctive culture, primitive traits, geographical isolation, shyness over contact and backwardness (social, economic and educational).

With an estimated population of around 80 lakhs, Kurubas constitute the third-largest caste group in the state after the Lingayats and Vokkaligas. A section of the Kuruba community (Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is Kuruba) has been running a campaign demanding they be recategorised as STs.

In October 2022, Karnataka Pradesh Kurubara Sangh demanded the inclusion of Kuruba community in Bidar, Kalaburagi and Yadgir districts as synonym of the Gond Scheduled Tribe in the list of Scheduled Tribe list. In 1977, Justice LG Havanur Commission introduced an area restriction stating that those living in Bidar, Yadgir, Kalaburagi and Madikeri with Kuruba synonyms can avail the ST benefits.

Kurubas have long been demanding that the entire community, which is currently classified under the 2A category in the OBC list, be designated ST. 2A category has an internal reservation of 15%, but a few other castes, including Dhobi, Devadiga, Padiar, Poojari, Ezhava, Kshatriya / Kshatri, Aryan, Kamasal, Kumbar, are also included in this category. Kurubas hope to benefit from the weaker reservation pool by moving to the ST category.

OBCs have an overall quota of 32 per cent (for 207 castes spread across five categories.

In Karnataka, around 50 communities fall under the ST category. The cumulative population of ST is estimated to be around 42.5 lakhs (around 7 per cent of the state's total population). STs are mainly concentrated in Bellary, Raichur, Mysore, Chitradurga, Belgaum, Davanagere and Tumkur districts. 

In October 2022, state governor Thawarchand Gehlot approved an ordinance by the then-ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to hike the reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities. Reservation for SC was increased from 15 to 17 per cent and ST from 3 to 7 per cent.

Siddaramaiah's government's decision to recommend ST status for Kurubas will likely face fierce opposition from the existing ST communities.

The Valmiki Nayakas community leaders and religious heads have often warned the State government not to attempt internal reservation within ST quota. Valmiki-Nayakas, a powerful ST community, has often faced accusations of grabbing a disproportionate share of benefits within the ST.

Reservation In Karnataka

In the run-up to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly elections, the Bommai government also abolished religion-based reservation in the state by scrapping the 4 per cent reservation given to Muslims in Karnataka under 2B of Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. It distributed it to two politically influential communities — Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas — at 2 per cent each in jobs and admissions in educational institutions.

On March 31. Bommai-led BJP government also notified the rules regarding the EWS quota. The EWS quota was introduced by PM Narendra Modi-led NDA government through a constitutional amendment in January 2019.

Despite recasting the reservation matrix, the Bommai government kept the overall 32 per cent reservation to OBCs in the state.