SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference president and Handwara MLA Sajad Lone on Wednesday questioned the regional disparity in the issuance of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) certificates in Jammu and Kashmir, urging the government to adopt a uniform definition of poverty for employment and welfare purposes across the Union Territory.
Speaking in the J&K Assembly, Lone cited government ration-card data to argue that the number of EWS certificates issued in the two regions was sharply out of proportion to the distribution of economically vulnerable households.
According to data from the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department cited by Lone, Kashmir has more than 37 lakh Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Below Poverty Line (BPL)/priority household ration cards, compared with around 29 lakh in Jammu. Yet, he said, approximately 24,000 EWS certificates were issued in Jammu during the past year, against only about 2,400 in Kashmir — a regional split of nearly 92 per cent and 8 per cent.
“The per capita is the same and the social conditions are the same,” Lone told the House, arguing that the two regions share a common history and that the disparity could not be explained by fundamentally different definitions of poverty.
He identified the asset component of the existing EWS eligibility criteria as the principal problem. Under the present framework, a family with an annual income below Rs 8 lakh may qualify on the income criterion but can be excluded from EWS benefits if it owns property above specified limits.
Lone questioned the logic of such a distinction in Jammu and Kashmir, where land and housing patterns differ considerably. A person earning less than Rs 8 lakh a year, he said, could be considered economically weak under one criterion but treated as “rich” because of owning a house on three-and-a-half marlas of land.
He also pointed to what he described as an inconsistency between the government’s welfare and employment classifications.
“A person who qualifies as poor for a ration card is treated as well-off when applying for a job,” Lone said.
Citing replies furnished to him in the Assembly, Lone said around 7,500 recruitments had been made since the government assumed office, of which approximately 750 posts had gone to candidates under the EWS category.
If the distribution were based on AAY and BPL/priority household ration-card data, Lone calculated that around 412 of those 750 EWS appointments would have gone to Kashmir and 337 to Jammu. Under the existing system, however, he said, the actual distribution was heavily skewed towards Jammu.
He said the disparity could become more consequential with around 40,000 recruitments pending. Of these, about 4,000 posts would be expected to fall under the EWS category.
According to Lone’s calculations, the existing asset-based criteria could result in approximately 320 of these EWS posts going to Kashmir and 3,680 to Jammu. If AAY/BPL status were used as the basis, he said, the corresponding distribution would be around 2,200 posts for Kashmir and 1,800 for Jammu.
Lone said the issue was particularly important because Kashmiri youth were already competing in a job market affected by existing reservation categories, and that the regional imbalance in EWS certification could further affect their access to government employment.
“There is no rocket science in this,” he said, challenging economists and statisticians to explain the difference between the two regions in the issuance of EWS certificates.
Lone cited Kerala as an example of a state where AAY and BPL ration-card status is used in determining EWS eligibility. He said he was prepared to provide the relevant Kerala form to the Speaker and the concerned minister for consideration.
He also argued that Jammu and Kashmir had room to frame its own EWS criteria for posts under the Union Territory administration. Article 16 of the Constitution permits the identification of economically weaker sections on the basis of family income and other indicators, he said, while the Centre’s 2019 Department of Personnel and Training criteria could continue to apply to central government employment.
Lone called for a single poverty definition to be used across government departments dealing with welfare and employment.
“A poor person is one who holds a priority household ration card or an AAY card,” he said. “You cannot have two definitions.”
