Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik has given his assent to the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2014, providing reservation in government jobs for Pahari community.
Features of the Amendment Bill
The features of the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2014 are:
- The amendment provides for reservation in government jobs for the persons belonging to the Pahari community, clan or tribe having a distinct cultural, ethnic and linguistic identity.
- The amendment creates a separate category for the persons belonging to Pahari community, clan or tribe having distinct, cultural, ethnic and linguistic identity among the Socially and Educationally Backward classes (other than Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes).
- The bill empowers the government of Jammu and Kashmir to notify method and authority for identification of Pahari Community.
Pahari Community
The Pahari Community also called as Pahadi and Parbati belongs to Indo-Aryan ethnic group inhabiting Himalayan regions of Nepal and India.
Pahari community has historically faced economic distress resulting in an overall socio-economic backwardness of the community due to the remoteness and inaccessibility of the areas that they have been living in.
As a result of this socio-economic backwardness, Paharis were not able to compete with other sections of the society in terms of access to education and health care due to these disadvantages. Hence to address these gaps the government of Jammu and Kashmir has extended the reservation in Jobs.