The activist Manoj Jarange has over the years been steadily raising various demands concerning the Maratha community, the majority caste group in Maharashtra. On May 30, he started a fast-unto-death, which he called off after midnight on May 31 after representatives of Maharashtra’s Mahayuti government handed over a 12-point proposal to him in connection with reservation for the Maratha community.
Days after, the government announced the decision to extend to the Marathas educational concessions and facilities that are available for Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities. Eight schemes that are to be launched for the Maratha community mirror those existing for the OBCs.
Yet, the Maratha community is not marked by the “social backwardness” that forms the basis of these OBC-specific schemes. One, therefore, is forced to ask if political pressure determines social development policies.
Indeed, the government appears to have entirely set aside the criterion of social backwardness in extending benefits to the Maratha community, citing only economic backwardness to justify the move. However, if economic weakness is to be the sole criterion for such policy decisions, the State government might as well have implemented universal free education for all students up to the undergraduate level, as Kerala has done. Kerala, incidentally, occupies the 11th place in the country’s GDP rankings, whereas Maharashtra has the highest GDP among the States. Ahead of the 2024 Assembly election in Maharashtra, the BJP promised free education for all girls; the promise remains unfulfilled. A comprehensive and universal policy for education for all remains a distant dream.
This latest policy decision to offer scholarships for Class XI students and to those pursuing undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional courses will certainly be beneficial for economically disadvantaged Maratha students. Students enrolled in recognised professional courses outside the State will also receive these concessions. Further, the government has stated that any new educational scheme that may be launched for OBC students will be applicable to Maratha students also. The government has also expressed its readiness to make substantial additional financial provision to implement this decision.
However, the State government appears to be pulling back when it comes to existing welfare schemes for Dalit and OBC communities. In March, it presented a budget of approximately Rs.8 lakh crore, but made a provision of only Rs.4,600 crore for the social and educational development of the OBC community, which does not amount to even 0.5 per cent of the total budget, according to media reports.
Moreover, the social welfare fund intended for the welfare schemes of Dalits, Adivasis, and nomadic, and de-notified tribes has been frequently diverted to cover other fiscal deficits. In more recent examples, sums of Rs.98 crore in February and Rs.410 crore in September 2025 were transferred from this fund to the government’s famous Ladki Bahin scheme, media reports said.
In other words, the government is using funds reserved for marginalised communities to fulfil the lavish promises it makes during every election season. Under the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP), the State government is mandated to earmark funds for the Social Welfare Department. Diverting these funds elsewhere thus constitutes a violation of constitutional provisions. It also impacts the implementation of schemes meant for the uplift of marginalised people.
Disparity in fund allocation
Maharashtra’s economic policy has consistently reflected the influence of numerically predominant and socially advanced castes. Over the past decade, the BJP-led administration has heavily publicised its efforts to further social development. Financial provisions are routinely announced for OBC communities. When it comes to implementation, it is a different story. The disparity in fund allocations is stark.
The Annasaheb Patil Economic Development Corporation was established specifically for schemes benefiting the Maratha community. Under this initiative, the State government launched a loan scheme in 2017 to help Maratha youngsters set up businesses; funds to the tune of Rs.12,500 crore have been disbursed over the past decade. The beneficiaries are from the Maratha-Kunbi community, which constitutes only 11 to 13 per cent of Maharashtra’s population.
In contrast, the Other Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation received only Rs.398 crore in total funding between 2015 and 2025. Yet, it serves a much larger beneficiary base, comprising OBC, Vimukta Jati (VT, or de-notified tribes), nomadic tribe (NT), and Special Backward Class (SBC) groups that collectively account for 58 to 60 per cent of the State’s population. The disparity raises concerns about the economic upliftment of marginalised sections.
Political pressures
The existing educational concessions granted to OBC, Dalit, and tribal communities are based on constitutional criteria that seek to address social and educational backwardness. What is the legal and constitutional basis for extending similar schemes to the Maratha community? The State government’s primary objective appears to be to placate the dominant caste. When political policy is determined by political pressure rather than the criterion of social backwardness, the principles of social justice get undermined.
Manoj Jarange Patil on a hunger strike at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan in August 2025. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI
For the past three years, the agitation led by Manoj Jarange has seen the Maratha community, acting as a pressure group, exert significant influence over political policy. A pattern has emerged: Jarange makes demands, and the State government eventually concedes them.
The combination of organised political action by the numerically dominant Maratha caste and the fragmented nature of the approximately 400 castes in the OBC category appears to be driving the State government’s policies. The political “nuisance value” of OBC segments is lower than that of the Maratha community. The Devendra Fadnavis government has continued with a long-standing tradition of allowing this caste dynamic to shape political policy.
The Maharashtra government must ask whether any policy of social justice brings the most vulnerable sections of society into the mainstream or provides further benefits to already influential groups. Pandering to the demands of socially advantaged groups amounts to playing politics and does not further the cause of social justice.
Rushikesh Arun Patil is a journalist and policy researcher from Maharashtra. His work focuses on social justice, caste identity, identity politics, and the socio-economic conditions of nomadic and de-notified communities.
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