New Delhi, April 14: Students from Other Backward Classes are much better off than their counterparts in the Muslim, Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe communities, a national survey on school dropout rates has found.

The survey was conducted by the Education Consultants India Limited and the Social and Rural Research Institute.

For instance, the national dropout rate in the 6-13 age group is 6.94 per cent. Among OBCs, this rate is 6.9 per cent, much less than the percentage of dropouts among SCs (8.17) and STs (9.54). Among Muslims, it is 9.97 per cent ? nearly 3 per cent higher than the national average.

In rural areas, the OBC dropout rate is 7.73 per cent. It is 8.55 per cent among SC children and 10.11 per cent among STs. Here, too, the dropout rate among Muslim children is way higher at 12.03 per cent, when the national average is 7.8 per cent.

In urban areas, the national school dropout percentage is 4.34. OBCs have a lower dropout rate than this average at 3.83 per cent, while it is 6.25 per cent for SCs and 4.21 per cent for STs. Among Muslims, it is as high as 7.17 per cent.

Muslim leaders have been demanding reservation in education and jobs on the ground that they are as deprived as SC and ST groups and need affirmative action.

SC and ST leaders, too, are not happy with the quota proposed in government institutions for OBC students. They have criticised the human resource development ministry’s suggestion to have 27 per cent reservation on the ground that it cuts into their share of seats.

The SCs at present have 15 per cent and STs 7.5 per cent quota in educational institutions.

The national survey says: “While the estimate of children out of school is highest among Muslims, it is lowest among the ‘other’ category (OBC) in urban as well as rural areas.”

Some critics of HRD minister Arjun Singh’s reservation proposal argue that the quota will only benefit those who are managing to do relatively well instead of others in need of affirmative action. This is borne out by the dropout rates.

For instance, SC/STs are much lower down the economic strata than many OBCs. They are also more backward educationally and socially. In fact, Muslims are the most backward.

There is also an argument that V.P. Singh’s Mandalisation of politics has led to a new assertion among OBCs who now have strong leaders like Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav in the Hindi heartland. The SC\STs also have their representatives in the political arena like Mayavati and Ram Vilas Paswan to take up their cause. The Muslims on the other hand cannot lay claim to any such leader.

Those arguing against the continuation of reservation in its present form say it should be based on economic criteria. “Otherwise what happens is that the benefits reach only the creamy layers of these communities,” said an academic from an IIT.