The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) advised enacting a legislation that would make it mandatory for private entities, including cooperative and philanthropic organisations, to reserve 27% of all hiring for people from the so-called other backward classes (OBCs).

Quotas are the rule in government jobs and schools in India with politics often holding sway over who gets benefits, while critics urge for a transition to need-based programmes that provide advantages based on economic or geographic conditions.

While the BJP-led government had been silent on the issue, union minister Ram Vilas Paswan last week once again raked up the demand for reservation in the private sector. The Congress and Left parties too have raised the matter several times in the past.

The move, if implemented, can potentially trigger howls of protest from industry bodies which have consistently opposed any form of legislative job reservation system and favoured a voluntary “affirmative action” initiative to offer opportunities to such people.

Private companies largely follow their own hiring rules based on specific skill and industry needs. For instance, the top blue chip private companies mostly make their fresh recruitments from business schools and engineering campuses, as opposed to state-owned enterprises that have to reserve jobs for people from the scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and OBCs.