J&K’s Controversy over EWS Certificates: What Determines Poverty

During the recent Jammu & Kashmir Assembly session, MLA Sajad Gani Lone raised concerns over a sharp regional imbalance in the issuance of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) certificates.

• Of 26,514 EWS certificates issued in the last two years, about 24,058 (91%) went to Jammu division, while only 2,486 went to Kashmir division.
• Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather asked the government to examine the alleged imbalance and consider corrective measures.

EWS Criteria in J&K

• The 2019 amendment to the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Rules, 2005 introduced 10% reservation for EWS.
• Eligibility broadly requires:
  • Annual family income below ₹8 lakh.
  • Agricultural landholding below 5 acres.
• A person is excluded if the family owns:
  • A house of 1,000 sq ft or more.
  • A residential plot of 100 sq yards or more in notified municipalities.
  • A residential plot of 200 sq yards or more outside notified municipalities.

Why Are the Rules Being Questioned?

• Critics argue that J&K largely adopted the Central EWS criteria without sufficient adaptation to local socio-economic conditions.
• Land in J&K is traditionally measured in kanals and marlas, while EWS rules use square feet and square yards.
• 1 kanal ≈ 5,445 sq ft/605 sq yd and 1 marla ≈ 272 sq ft/30 sq yd.
• This mismatch may make implementation and interpretation more difficult at the local level.

Why Kashmir May Be at a Disadvantage

• Traditional Kashmiri houses are often multi-storeyed and built with larger residential compounds or gardens.
• Counting the built-up area across floors can push otherwise low-income households beyond the prescribed property limits.
• Critics therefore argue that housing patterns shaped by climate, culture and local lifestyles may unintentionally reduce EWS eligibility in Kashmir.

Different Poverty Indicators

• Around 2.20 lakh Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration cards have reportedly been issued in J&K.
• Of these, about 1.44 lakh are in Kashmir division and around 75,000 in Jammu division.
• Critics argue that AAY data suggests a much more balanced—or even higher—incidence of poverty in Kashmir than the EWS certificate distribution indicates.

Question of Yardsticks

• The controversy raises a larger question: Can a uniform national income-and-property test accurately measure economic weakness across regions with different housing, landholding and livelihood patterns?
• Some political leaders have cited States such as Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, which have modified aspects of Central norms to suit local conditions.
• They have called for J&K to review and localise EWS eligibility criteria while preserving the basic objective of the reservation.

The debate is not over the principle of EWS reservation, but over whether current eligibility criteria fairly capture poverty and economic vulnerability in J&K’s distinct regional context.