Ten castes of Kerala including Scheduled Caste communities Raneyar, Chandala and Ajila and forward communities Kodigar and Chorthapanicker have only one member each employed in the Kerala government service.
The other communities whose representation is limited to one member among the total 5,45,423 employees of the State are Navithaar, Kodiyava, Koodaya, Komaran and Koodigara, according to the recently published community-wise report of employees.
As many as 237 castes of Kerala got representation in government service including government, quasi-government and public sector institutions, with Ezhava turning out to be the most represented community (1,15,075 employees) followed by Nair, 1,08,012, which included 25 sub-castes namely Thampi, Unnithan, Vallyathan, Tharakan, Nair, Pillai and Shoodrar. The representation of 52 communities was limited to a single digit number including Nalakeyava, which had two members, Mughari (7), Padayachi (7) and Melekkarar (3).
316 departments represented
The details of employees in 316 departments were prepared by the Kerala State Commission for Backward Classes using the data uploaded by the respective departments to the web portal, e-caste database of employees in service Kerala (e-CDESK).
In the list, Education department reported the highest number of employees, 1,52,109. However, the Kerala State Haj Committee, Kerala State Palmyrah Products Development and Workers Welfare Corporation, Regional Cancer Centre, K. R. Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts, Kerala Womenโs Commission, Minority Welfare Department, Kerala State Veterinary Council, Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council and the Council for Food Research and Development provided the information on only one employee each.
KSEB missing
The details of employees of a few agencies like Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), which has over 25,000 employees, was prominently missing from the list.
The role of the commission was limited to the compilation of the data volunteered by the nodal officers of the government departments. The commission has no mechanism to check the veracity of the data or direct the departments that have failed to upload the data to provide information, according to commission sources.
