What are Other Backward Classes?

Communities which are marginalized but not included within the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. These are communities that migrated from outside India. Communities whose backwardness is only measured through lack of economic resources. Communities which are economically better off within the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Communities which are marginalized but not included within the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Untouchability was the most visible and comprehensive form of social discrimination. However, there were a large group of castes that were of low status and were also subjected to varying levels of discrimination short of untouchability. These were the service and artisanal castes who occupied the lower rungs of the caste hierarchy. The Constitution of India recognises the possibility that there may be groups other than the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes who suffer from social disadvantages. These groups – which need not be based on caste alone, but generally are identified by caste – were described as the ‘socially and educationally backward classes’. This is the constitutional basis of the popular term ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBCs), which is in common use today.