MUMBAI: The Backward Classes Commission headed by retired Justice MD Gaikwad has made startling revelations about the social, economic and educational status of the Marathas in its 3,000-pages-long report submitted to chief secretary D K Jain on Thursday.The panel had asked five organisations to conduct a comprehensive survey of 46,629 families of the Maratha, Kunbi, OBC and other communities. Of those surveyed, 29,813 were Maratha families, 3,549 Kunbi, 4,992 OBC and 9,275 households were of other backward castes.Of the 46,629 families, 25% were found to be below the poverty line, and 37.2% of these were Marathas, the report stated. Also, families of 345 farmers who committed suicide in the last 10 years were part of the total number surveyed, and it was found 277 of the farmers who had ended their lives belonged to the Maratha community. In terms of education, the situation was equally dismal. Only six per cent of the heads of families from among all the ones surveyed were found to be graduates, while in Generation Next, only three per cent were graduates.“We have specific data of nearly two lakh people. On education those surveyed told us that they were unable to pursue higher education owing to huge fees and the high level of competition. In the absence of reservation, they had to give up plans for further education,” a senior bureaucrat told TOI on Thursday.The bureaucrat said the trusts and NGOs doing the survey had secured information on annual income, education, family composition, availability of jobs and if indeed there was a need for reservation for the Marathas. “We had given a questionnaire with 50 questions to the 46,629 families. We collected the entire data and analysed it to ascertain if Marathas were backward. Notwithstanding the general perception that Marathas are rich, we felt the Marathas are indeed backward and need reservation for their welfare,” he said.Almost all the Maratha families spoken to—98%—expressed the view that the community should get reservation, while 89% of the Kunbi families, 90% of the OBCs and 89% of those belonging to other communities endorsed the Maratha demand for a quota. More than 20% demanded reservation in jobs, 12% wanted a quota in education, while 61% wanted reservation in jobs as well as education.Further, the panel concluded that 70.5% of the families surveyed did not have permanent houses and 62% had small land-holdings. It was also found that a scanty percentage owned refrigerators, washing machines, air-conditioners and laptops. Only 0.8% of the Maratha households spoken to had refrigerators, 0.8% had washing machines. 0.6% had air-conditioners and 0.4% had laptops. The status of Kunbis was similar: only 2.4% of their families surveyed had refrigerators, no one had a washing machine, 0.1% per cent had ACs and 0.3% per cent had laptops.On annual income, the commission found that only 0.4% of Marathas had an annual income of more than Rs4 lakh, 8% had an annual income of Rs1-4 lakh, 18.6% earned Rs50,000-1 lakh, 51% had income of up to Rs50,000, while 21% had income up to Rs24,000.

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