The Akhil Bhartiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti today urged the National Commission for Backward Classes to grant backward status to Jats irrespective of religion or sect. In a letter sent to the Commission, the Samiti chief Hawa Singh Sangwan said as per the constitution a community could be granted backward status on grounds of social and educational backwardness. The memorandum said on the basis of social practices the Jat community was on a par with other communities such as Ahir, Gujjar, Saini, Lodha, Khati, Luhar,Kumbhar, Nai and Kamboj. All these had already been declared as backward castes.
It added that in rural social system the communities that shared Hukka-Paani in the village chaupal were equal in social stutus. Since the Jats shared Hukka-Paani with members of these communities, they should also be declared a backward community. It said that Jat Sikhs and Muslim Jats known as Mulla Jat should also be declared as backward communities even though they follow different religions. On a social level the Sikhs and Muslims too were divided in to different castes and therefore they should declared backward too. The Samiti pointed out that the Mandal Commission had asked the government to provide it with educational status of different castes and communities.
Since no such data was available, the Commission decided to treat all rural communities as educationally backward. Since 95 percent of Jats lived in villages, the community needed to be treated as educationally backward too. The memorandum said economically too the Jats were backward as a vast majority of them owned land holdings of less than five acres. It said different states had categorised Jats as backward on different criteria. This was unjustified and the entire community needed to be declared backward irrespective of the religious or sectarian affiliations. UNI