Report on Karnataka SC population presented to CM Siddaramiah, internal quota decision likely at cabinet meeting | Bangalore News

The survey was undertaken against the backdrop of the Supreme Court decision of August 1, 2024, allowing sub-categorisation of the SC community in the country to award internal quotas on the basis of the backwardness of the different Dalit communities.

“Sub-categorization is an extension of social justice. The state government has the power to grant internal reservations. Sub-categorization does not exclude anyone who is experiencing reservation. Necessary data should be collected and subspecies should be classified,” the state government said in a statement regarding the survey report.

In January 2025, the Karnataka Government constituted a commission under the chairmanship of Justice H N Nagamohan Das to study and submit a report on the internal reservation for Scheduled Castes in the state. The commission submitted an interim report on March 27 and requested a fresh survey due to the lack of accurate data in the state.

The door-to-door survey was conducted from May 5 to July 6, 2025. The survey has covered 27,24,768 Scheduled Caste families and 1,07,01,982 people, a report on the survey said. The survey reportedly received poor responses in urban areas.

The Supreme Court has suggested classification of subcastes on the basis of educational backwardness, lack of representation in government employment, and social backwardness.

“The available reservation (15 per cent) has been distributed by classifying the sub-castes of the Scheduled Castes as per the instructions of the Supreme Court, after analyzing the data collected in the survey and collected from government institutions. The report, survey data, and appendices total approximately 1,766 pages and six recommendations,” the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission said on Monday.

The survey has seen Scheduled Caste leaders calling for community members to clearly state their subcastes among the 101 SC castes in Karnataka.

The survey of subcastes is part of efforts of the Congress Government to fulfil an electoral promise to provide internal reservations for socially weaker subcastes within the 15 per cent SC quota umbrella in the state.

Nearly 43 per cent of respondents in the last census had designated themselves as belonging to the broad categories of Adi Dravida, Adi Karnataka, and Adi Andhra – without specifying which of the 101 SC subcastes – like Madigas, Holeyas and others – they belong to.

Among those who have generally identified themselves under the broad SC umbrella of Adi Karnataka, Adi Andhra, and Adi Dravida – instead of the actual subcaste that designates aspects like touchability and untouchability in the Hindu caste system – are the street sweepers and garbage cleaners in urban areas in Karnataka.

In Karnataka, the SC community is broadly classified under four heads – the SC Left (the most backward like the Madigas, who were considered untouchables in the caste system): the SC Right (like the Holeyas, who are less backward and accepted by other castes); the touchable communities such as Banjaras and Bhovis (who are tribes in other states); and dozens of small SC communities classified as others.

The caste survey of SC communities is needed to ascertain the numbers in each of the subcastes under the broad SC categories to decide the division of the 15 per cent SC quota in government jobs, education, and political representation, which is now reportedly hogged by upwardly mobile social groups in the SCs – like the Holeyas in the SC Right, and the touchable groups of Banjaras and Bhovis.

BJP effort to provide internal quotas for SC in Karnataka

The Justice Nagamohan Das commission was set up in November 2024 by the Congress Government to submit recommendations on internal reservation for the SC communities in the wake of the previous BJP Government arriving at an ad hoc number.

In its term between 2019 and March 2023, the BJP Government enhanced the SC quotas in the state from 15 to 17 per cent in 2022 and announced internal reservation for SC communities in March 2023 by providing 6 per cent of the total of 17 per cent of SC quotas to the SC Left group comprising mostly of the Madigas, 5.5 per cent to the SC Right, 4.5 per cent to the touchables and one per cent to other SC groups.

The BJP Government fixed the internal quota on an ad hoc basis by considering the 2011 caste census numbers and by considering some aspects of the 2012 Justice A J Sadashiva Commission report on internal quotas – while rejecting the report.

The most backward Dalit groups like the Madigas have been demanding the implementation of the Justice Sadashiva Commission report on account of the commission recommending 6 per cent for the most backward SC Left group, 5 per cent for the backward SC Right, 3 per cent for the SC “Touchable” group (Lambani, Bhovis, Korachas, Kormas), and 1 per cent for others.

Justice A J Sadashiva Commission’s findings

Among the essential findings of the Justice A J Sadashiva Commission, which were made known through a press release in 2012, is that the Madiga community or the SC Left, who are considered untouchables in the caste hierarchy in India, were more socially backward than the SC Right like the Holeyas, who are considered more acceptable in society.

The commission also found that the majority of the 15 per cent reservation for 101 subcastes of Dalits in Karnataka was being cornered by the “Right” Dalits like Holeyas and new SC groups like Bhovis, Lambanis, while the most backward groups like the Madigas remained deprived.

Holeyas and Madigas are considered to make up nearly one-third each of the SC population in Karnataka, with the numbers of the Madigas being about two per cent higher than that of Holeyas, the Justice Sadashiva Commission indicated in 2012 – based roughly on census data.

The BJP scheme of 2022-23 was seen as a mid-way scheme from the Justice Sadashiva recommendations to appease all SC groups. The scheme, however, backfired to some extent with the touchable groups in the SCs like the Bhovis and Banjaras revolting against the BJP in the 2023 polls over the reduced internal quota of 4.5 per cent allotted to them.

The BJP scheme was, however, not implemented since the mandate for changing internal quotas was vested with the Union Government prior to the August 2024 Supreme Court order, which said the granting of internal reservation is a constitutional measure and that states can implement internal quotas for castes on the basis of empirical data.

The Karnataka Government decided in November 2024 not to issue any fresh notification for government jobs until the finalisation of the internal reservation system for SCs.

The thinking in the Government while constituting the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission was that internal reservations for SCs based on population numbers – like in the Sadashiva Commission report – are likely to be struck down by the courts for want of proper data.

“In the wake of three decades of continuous demands and pressures for internal reservation in the state, the state Cabinet has agreed in principle to internal reservation in Scheduled Castes. There are 101 subcastes in the Scheduled Castes and the Government has decided to take all of them into confidence and scientifically implement internal reservation,” Siddaramaiah said in 2024 when the Cabinet decision for the new commission was taken.

The Karnataka chief minister has indicated that the Telangana Government had already constituted a commission on the same model for implementation of internal reservation and that data is required for scientific implementation of internal reservation as directed by the Supreme Court.

Internal quotas a political hot potato

In a political sense, the SC internal quotas issue is a tricky subject for the Congress in Karnataka, which has traditionally drawn its support from the SC Right group, to which many of its prominent leaders – Mallikarjun Kharge, G Parameshwara, H C Mahadevappa – all belong.

While the SC Left has supported the Congress in the past, many of these communities have moved towards the BJP on account of the general neglect by the Congress in terms of political representation and opportunities. The most prominent SC Left leader in the Congress is K H Muniyappa, a seven-time MP and former Union minister.

The “touchables” in the SC group – like the Banjaras and Bhovis – who were aligned with the BJP in the past are seen as having moved towards the Congress in 2023 after the BJP’s unfulfilled internal quota exercise of 2022-23.