For Marathas, the Kunbi certificate is a passport to unimagined wonders

Brahmanand Sirsat celebrates his son’s MBBS admission, thanks to a Kunbi certificate obtained after Maratha quota protests, reducing education costs significantly.

MUMBAI: Forty-seven-year-old Brahmanand Sirsat from Umara village in Nanded was overjoyed to share that his son Ruturaj Sirsat had got admission into the MBBS course at Mumbai’s Nair Hospital under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota. This only happened because Sirsat managed to obtain a Kunbi certificate last year after the government gave in to Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil’s frequent agitations.

Narayan Jhodge, 44, is a zilla parishad school teacher in Majalgaon, Beed. In March, his family got a Kunbi certificate based on land records from 1881, and within a month his nephew Ajay got admission into a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery course at MES Ayurved Mahavidyalaya in the OBC quota. (HT)

Brahmanand, a farmer by profession, said he wouldn’t have dreamed of sending his son to the MBBS course without the certificate. “The general category fees are ₹1.61 lakh per year,” he said. “After getting a Kunbi certificate, I paid just ₹7,900 for the first year. We also got a concession in hostel fees from ₹1 lakh to ₹4,000 per year.”

An elated Brahmanand said that all this was possible only because of Jarange-Patil. “Our entire generation is going to benefit because of him,” he said.

Jarange-Patil, was on a hunger strike at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan till Tuesday, demanding Kunbi certificates for all Marathas. His claim, contested by many, is that Kunbis and Marathas are the same and hence the latter should get all the benefits due to Kunbis. Despite being a sub-caste of the Maratha community, Kunbis get reservation benefits under the state’s OBC quota in jobs and education.

Following Jarange-Patil’s agitations, the Maharashtra government last year began issuing Kunbi certificates to Marathas based on various documents, including land records that proved their Kunbi antecedents. The certificate is doing wonders for thrilled Maratha families who were initially unaware how much they would benefit from it.

Bandu Mule, 46, a farmer from Dhokbabulgaon in Solapur district, has also reaped the benefits. In 2020, his daughter, Vidya Mule, joined a computer engineering course in a private institute. When she was in her second year, her father, who had faced severe crop losses, was unable to pay her fees and she was forced to discontinue her studies.

Things started changing when the family obtained a Kunbi certificate last year. “This time, she joined the Vidya Vikas Pratishthan Institute of Engineering and Technology for the artificial intelligence diploma course,” Mule told HT. “As OBCs, we are paying only ₹15,000 per year instead of the ₹55,000 general category fee. Vidya also managed to get a scholarship, and her entire course fee is being completely reimbursed.”

Mule obtained the Kunbi certificate based on land records from 1861, in which his descendants were shown as Kunbis. He also managed a Kunbi certificate for his niece Namrata Pasale and admission to the same college for a computer engineering course by paying a mere ₹16,000 per year. “We are reaping the benefits of the movement started by Jarange-Patil. Without him, none of this would have been possible,” emphasised the Solapur farmer who lives in a joint family which owns only 12 acres of farmland.

Narayan Jhodge, 44, is a zilla parishad school teacher in Majalgaon, Beed. In March, his family got a Kunbi certificate based on land records from 1881, and within a month his nephew Ajay got admission into a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery course at MES Ayurved Mahavidyalaya in the OBC quota. “We paid a fee of ₹1.25 lakh per year as against ₹2.50 lakh for the general category,” he said. “Arranging for the whole fee would have been impossible for our family. All the credit goes to Jarange-Patil.”

Seventeen-year-old Avdhut Khandare’s father owns a factory that makes pipes for drip irrigation in Dharashiv. But his well-to-do family also applied for and obtained a Kunbi certificate based on land records that went back to its eighth generation. Armed with this, Khandare joined the Sanjay Ghodawat Institute in Kolhapur for a three-year polytechnic course and paid only ₹15,000 as an annual fee where the regular fee is ₹55,000. “The certificate is helping the community in a big way,” he said.