“SCs and STs have constitutional and legal safeguards. They have the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. But there are sections among OBCs which are even more vulnerable and have no comparable legal protection,” he said.
He said communities such as Nais, Prajapatis, Kashyaps and Vishwakarmas constituted a significant section of the poorer and landless OBC population in Uttar Pradesh and faced discrimination and harassment, particularly in rural areas.
Official government data on poverty by social group, based on 2004-05 estimates, showed that 36.6 per cent of the OBC population in urban Uttar Pradesh and 32.9 per cent in rural Uttar Pradesh lived below the then official poverty line.
Jaihind said Rahul Gandhi had agreed with the need to address the concerns of these communities.
The proposal remains at a preliminary stage. Asked whether the Congress had discussed the issue with its alliance partners, Jaihind said consultations had yet to begin and that the contours of any alliance would ultimately be decided by the party leadership. “But the party will do its part to pitch for this,” he said.
The Uttar Pradesh proposal draws on the Congress-led Mahagathbandhan’s outreach to Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) in Bihar. Ahead of the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, the alliance had unveiled a 10-point Atipichhda Nyay Sankalp, which included a promise to enact an EBC Atrocities Prevention Act on the lines of the SC/ST law.
