The reservation policy remains a major issue in J&K, with increasing demands to reverse the changes made in recruitment and admissions. The policy was introduced by the Lieutenant Governor-led administration after the abrogation of Article 370, before the assembly elections earlier this year. 

The new policy reduced the general category quota to 40 percent and increased the reservation for other categories to 60 percent. This decision, however, has not been well received by the majority of the population. According to the 2011 census, the general category forms the majority of the population in Jammu and Kashmir.

Also Read | When Discrimination Is Social, Why Should Reservation Be Economic?

The New Reservation Policy

On March 15, 2024, the Jammu and Kashmir administration, led by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, introduced amendments to the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Rules, 2005. Under the new policy, the reservation for Scheduled Tribes (ST) was increased from 10 percent to 20 percent. This change benefits the Pahari-speaking community, who largely inhabit the Pir Panjal region in Jammu.

The demand to include the Pahari community in the ST category had been long-standing. However, the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities, who already benefit from the 10 percent ST quota, strongly opposed including the Pahari community. To address this, the administration decided to increase the ST quota by 10 percent, leaving the Gujjar-Bakerwal share unchanged. The additional 10 percent was taken from the general category quota, reducing it to 40 percent.

Concerns Of General Category

The new policy has sparked concerns among general category candidates, who feel they are being deprived of their rights. This has been particularly noticeable after the recent advertisement for 575 lecturer positions, where only 238 posts were allocated to open merit candidates. 

The anxiety of the general category has grown as vacancies in various institutions have been filled according to the new reservation policy. The revised reservation policy for postgraduate medical seats in J&K has also sparked widespread criticism for drastically reducing the open merit quota to mere 29 per cent. 

Of the 293 PG seats in various medical colleges of J&K, available for counselling by J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations, only 87 aspirants belonging to unreserved category made it to the list.

Omar Abdullah Government's Response

Amid demands from the general category aspirants to roll back changes in the reservation policy, the National Conference, which won the Assembly elections in the union territory, had promised that the reservation policy “will be reviewed and any injustice and imbalance will be corrected.”

One of the first decisions of the elected government was to set up a cabinet sub-committee to review the reservation policy for jobs and education in J&K. Detailing the sub-committee composition and mandate, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told reporters on November 22: “There will be three ministers in that sub-committee. The cabinet has asked them to take a holistic view of the issue of reservation.”

“The youth, especially those belonging to the open category, feel that they are not getting their rights,” Abdullah said. “We don’t want to snatch anybody’s right, but at the same time, there is no discrimination against anybody,” he said.

Meanwhile, National Conference leader and Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi has vowed to join the protests against the current reservation policy if the government does not make amends.

Also Read | Omar Abdullah’s Many U-Turns

J&K Has Highest Unemployment Rate In The Country

Jammu and Kashmir has the highest unemployment rate in the country, with government jobs being highly sought after due to the lack of a robust private sector. According to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Jammu and Kashmir recorded the highest overall unemployment rate in the nation at 11.8 per cent. 

Among individuals aged between 15 to 32, the unemployment rate stands at 32 per cent, while it has reached a staggering 53.6 percent among females in the region. 

In the first quarter of 2024, the Directorate of Employment (DoE) in Jammu and Kashmir registered 3.52 lakh youth as unemployed. Of these, 1.09 lakh are graduates or postgraduates, representing 31 per cent of the total unemployed population.