Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes and functions, features

The Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes was first constituted in the year 2012, consequent upon the adoption of a Motion moved in the Lok Sabha on 21st December, 2011 by the then Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources. The Committee served for the years 2012-13 and 2013-14 before dissolution of the Fifteenth Lok Sabha. During the Sixteenth Lok Sabha, the Committee was reconstituted every year for the term of one year at a time. The last term of the Committee i.e. 2018-19 was extended upto the dissolution of Sixteenth Lok Sabha. During the Seventeenth Lok Sabha the Committee has again been constituted consequent upon the adoption of a Motion moved in Lok Sabha on 24th June, 2019 by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. 

Salient features of the Committee:

•  The Committee consists of thirty members, twenty from Lok Sabha and ten from Rajya Sabha, who are elected in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote; 
•  A Minister is not eligible for election as a Member of the Committee and if a Member after being elected to the Committee is appointed a Minister, such Member shall cease to be a Member thereof from the date of such appointment; 
•  The Chairperson of the Committee is appointed by the Speaker from amongst the Members of the Committee; 
•  The Members of the Committee hold office for a period of one year from the date of the first sitting of the Committee. Thereafter, the Committee is reconstituted for one year at a time; 
•  In order to constitute a sitting of the Committee, the quorum is stipulated to be ten; 
•  In all other respects, the Rules of Procedure of Lok Sabha relating to Parliamentary Committees are applicable with such variations and modifications as the Speaker may make. 

Functions of the committee:

(i) To consider the reports submitted by the National Commission for Backward Classes set up under Article 338B of the Constitution and to report to both the Houses as to the measures that should be taken by the Union Government in respect of matters within the purview of the Union Government including the Administrations of the Union Territories; 

(ii) To report to both the Houses on the action taken by the Union Government and the Administrations of the Union Territories on the measures proposed by the Committee; 

(iii) To examine the measures taken by the Union Government to secure due representation of the Other Backward Classes, particularly the Most Backward Classes, in services and posts under its control (including appointments in the public sector undertakings, statutory and semi Government Bodies and in the Union Territories) having regard to the provisions of the Constitution; 

(iv) To report to both the Houses on the working of the welfare programmes for the Other Backward Classes in the Union Territories; 

(v) To consider generally and to report to both the Houses on all matters concerning the welfare of the Other Backward Classes which fall within the purview of Union Government including the Administrations of Union Territories; and 

(vi) To examine such matters as may be deemed fit by the Committee or are specifically referred to it by the House or the Speaker. 

The Committee have got mandate to examine all the Ministries/Departments under Government of India and Union Territories’ administration. The Committee do not consider the matters of day-to-day administration of the concerned Ministries/Departments. The Committee also do not generally consider the matters which are under examination by other Parliamentary Committees.