The Center for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policies and Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies are jointly organizing a consultation of organizations working with DNT, NT, Muslim OBC, Small and Large OBC communities (they are all categorized as OBCs in the central list) on 2^nd July 2022.

The reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies of Maharashtra was put on hold by the Supreme Court on 4th May 2022. This is the context in which the consultation has been conceptualized. The Court rejected the interim report prepared by the dedicated commission constituted to provide data to fulfill the triple test laid down by a 2010 judgment of the Supreme court.

After the 4^th May 2022 Supreme Court judgment there seems to be much insecurity and confusion among these diverse, scattered and marginalized communities that we call OBCs. There is hardly any data available on their political backwardness. In fact, there is a lack of clarity about what political backwardness constitutes and necessitates a deeper and serious academic engagement. This consultation is proposed to contribute to such an engagement by directly involving actors who represent these communities, in social, political and academic arenas.

We believe that this consultation will help us in understanding the communities better. It can also prove useful in arriving at an understanding about what constitutes political backwardness, where do these communities measure on the test of political backwardness, how to scientifically measure it, and what should be the way forward.