India's Backward Classes Bureau has been ranked, along with five other government agencies, as the world's most inappropriately named state organisations that should go in for an image change.
"Few will disagree with the principles behind the work the bureau is performing, but a name change is definitely in order," the Foreign Policy magazine said as it released names of World's Five Most Inappropriate Government Agency.
The other agencies are KGB of Belarus, Central Propaganda Department of China, Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice of Saudi Arabia, and the Ministry of Lands, Land Reform, and Rural Resettlement of Zimbabwe.
The magazine said the Backward Classes Bureau provides welfare services to and represents interests of poor Indians.
Approximately 50 per cent of Indians are members of "backward classes," a rather blunt designation for lower-caste Hindus and other disadvantaged religious and ethnic communities, the report noted.
"The National Commission for Backward Classes (a separate body from the bureau) maintains an extensive list of criteria for what are known as "other backward classes" OBCs) - meaning that, frequently, new groups gain or old groups lose the designation," the Foreign Policy report said.
"In India's 28 states, there are literally hundreds of groups that are classified as OBCs. Backward classes are reserved 27 per cent of university placements, an extremely valuable commodity in modern India," it said.
"In India's 28 states, there are literally hundreds of groups that are classified as OBCs. Backward classes are reserved 27 per cent of university placements, an extremely valuable commodity in modern India," it said.