The Editorial Analysis- Inadequate Response

Table of Contents

Income Criteria for Identifying EWS- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: Governance, Administration and Challenges- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Recently, a government-appointed committee on determining criteria for identification of EWS submitted its report to the Supreme Court.

Income Criteria for EWS: The Committee said that the annual family income of ₹8 lakh is “a reasonable” threshold to determine if someone belongs to economically weaker sections (EWS).
- The economically weaker sections (EWS) quota provides a 10% reservation in admissions and jobs
Suitability of Income criteria: The committee said that the income criterion (₹8 lakh as the cut-off) used for identifying EWS was “more stringent” than the one for the OBC creamy layer.
- The committee said that the Income criteria for determining EWS is wide and uses many other income parameters in addition to what is used in the case of the OBC creamy layer.

Social and educational backwardness: The Supreme Court had said that the OBC category is socially and educationally backward, and had therefore additional impediments to overcome.
- In this context, SC had asked whether it “would be arbitrary to provide the same income limit both for the OBC and EWS categories”.
- The committee fails to adequately respond to this concern of the Supreme Court.
Vague Parameter: Committee said that considering all differences in purchasing power across urban/rural regions and per capita income/GDP across States would be infeasible and complex.
- the committee does not present any data on the estimated number (₹8 lakh) of EWS persons in the population-based on this.
Irrational Criteria: As per the consumer expenditure survey of the 2011-12 NSSO report, a bulk of the population will be eligible for reservations under the EWS category, rendering the limit irrational.
- The consumer expenditure survey of the 2011-12 NSSO report is a key Indicators of Household Consumer Expenditure.
Economically Weak Criteria: The committee’s assertion that ₹ 8 lakh corresponds to the “effective income tax exemption limit”.
- This is irrelevant as the only income slab exempted from paying taxes was for those earning below ₹2.5 lakh.

The validity of the 103rd Constitution Amendment, through which the EWS quota was introduced in 2019, is in any case still before a Constitution Bench.
The apex court must seek more clarity on the criteria adopted by the Governments committee to set the income limit for identifying the EWS sections eligible for reservations.