Vanniyars benefitted more than 10.5 % from MBC quota

Chennai: The benefits that members of the Vanniyar community accrued from the implementation of 20 per cent reservation for Most Backward Classes (MBCs), the quota system introduced in 1989 when M Karunanidhi was Chief Minister, both for admission to educational courses and employment, far exceeded 10.5 per cent, data obtained through Right to Information Act (RTI) said.

Though PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss claimed that the data was flawed and accused the DMK government of embarking on another drama to scuttle social justice to the Vanniyars, the data made available clearly points to the percentage of Vanniyars getting selected in government jobs and admissions in professional courses exceeding 10.5 per cent.

Karunanidhi had carved out the 20 per cent reservation for MBCs from the erstwhile 50 per cent for BCs after the Vanniyar Sangam went on a prolonged agitation during the AIADMK rule of M G Ramachandran demanding exclusive quota for Vanniyars in jobs and admissions as other communities and castes in the BC list cornered the benefits.

However, in the list of the MBCs were 115 other castes and denotified communities though the Vanniyars formed the most dominant caste group. After the PMK was formed and it started fighting for the social justice of the Vanniyar community it claimed that the 20 per cent quota did not help its people as the benefits were taken away by the others in the MBC list.

So during the previous AIADMK government, led by Edappadi K Palaniswami, the PMK launched another agitation and managed to get a 10.5 per cent exclusive reservation for Vanniyar community, which was struck down by the Supreme Court. Ever since, the PMK has been demanding that the State government take steps to restore the 10.5 per cent exclusive quota for them despite being told about the legal hurdles.

Also right from the time the 10.5 per cent reservation was brought in by the AIADMK government, there was a talk that the actual benefit that Vanniyars alone got out of the 20 per cent MBC quota was more than 10.5 per cent. The latest data on the admissions and recruitments only went to prove that the Vanniyar community was the biggest beneficiary of the 20 per cent MBC reservation and their members took more than 10.5 per cent of the benefits.

The data refers to job recruitments made through TNPSC, Teachers Recruitment Board, Uniformed Forces Selection Board and Medical personnel selection board of the State government between the years 2012 and 2022 and also medical college admissions.

As far as medical admissions go, in 2018 and 2022, the total seats were 24,330 of which I4,873 went to MBCs under the 20 per cent reservation and of them 2781 were candidates from the Vanniyar community, amounting to 11.4 per cent of the total seats. Even in the selection for medical higher studies Vanniyars qualifying for admission was 13.5 per cent.

In case of government job recruitment, for Group 4 services, Vanniyars formed 19.5 per cent of the selected candidates and in Group 2 it was 11.2 per cent. In the selection for uniformed forces by the State government, 17 per cent of the jobs went to Vanniyars and in the selection of assistant surgeons 17.1 per cent of the qualified persons were Vanniyars.

The trend continued in other recruitments like higher secondary school teachers (17.5 % Vanniyars), Deputy Collectors (11.6 %) and engineers (14.4 %).

However, Anbumani Ramadoss said that the data was skewed and a proper reservation policy could be brought about only after taking a comprehensive caste survey.