The OBC agitation is on today because people want their own column on the census form. OBC means Other Backward Classes. The SC and ST columns are already on the form. OBC groups say they do not have a separate column. If the count is not clean, the talk on how much reservation they get in jobs and college also stays incomplete.
This is the news for 3 October 2026. The dates and the quotes are from newspapers. The government has not said how many people came out across the country.
What is happening on the street today
Prabhat Khabar reported the programme in Garhwa, Jharkhand. Shubham Gupta, district president of the Rashtriya OBC Morcha, said a march would leave the town hall at 4 pm and go to Ranka Mod. An effigy of the government notification would be burnt there. The demand has two parts. Add a separate OBC column on the form. Print the count after the census.
A day earlier, on 2 October, there was a sit-in outside the district office in Bhandara, Maharashtra. Lokmat reported the programme of the OBC Sangharsh Samiti and the Sakal OBC Mahamorcha. It was not only about a column. They also asked for a drop-down menu. That means the person doing the count should not write the caste name by hand. A list should open, and the caste should be picked from it. Otherwise the 2011 mess can come back. The groups also said that if the column is missing, they will talk of staying out of the census.
The column and the reservation are not the same thing
A lot of people mix the two. Reservation is the share in jobs and college. At the Centre the OBC quota is 27 percent. Many states have their own percent. The census is the count that says how many people are in this class.
Today’s demand is not a decision to raise the quota. The demand is a clean count. Once the count is clean, the government has a number. Without a number, every side keeps giving its own figure. Vijay Wadettiwar said this in Nagpur. If the population figure does not come out, the question of seats and reservation will get more tangled. He is a Congress MLA from Vidarbha.
What happened in 2011
In 2011, castes were written down with the social and economic census. The names were written in so many ways that the data could not be read. Forward Press wrote this about the Delhi meeting of 20 September 2026. So this time people are not asking for an empty column. They want a column named OBC, and a way to pick the caste from the central list and the state list.
After the Mandal Commission, the OBC identity is in the law. Even then, the census every 10 years has not had a separate column for them. Reports say the count for the 2027 census has started in the cold hill states. As of 3 October, these reports did not show a new government paper adding an OBC column.
Who said what
On 13 September, about 65 OBC organisations met in Delhi. The calendar came after that. On 19 September in Nagpur, Wadettiwar told workers from 11 districts of Vidarbha that a separate column is the clear demand. He also asked for scholarships to be paid on time. And he said the OBC reservation that exists now should not be cut. National Herald and The Times of India printed this sequence.
On 20 September the OBC Mahasabha met at Constitution Club in Delhi. People wore yellow caps and yellow scarves. Radheshyam Sahu, president of the Chhattisgarh unit, said the castes are different, but the identity in law is one. Advocate Dharmendra Kushwaha said that if the column is not added before the next Parliament session, there will be a protest at Jantar Mantar. These are statements. There is no court order yet.
Which date comes next
A taluka sit-in was set for 2 October, because it was Gandhi Jayanti and Shastri Jayanti. Bhandara held that programme. District marches are planned for 25 October. The Delhi march is on 1 November. The full shape of 1 November is still to be fixed in a joint meeting. Jharkhand has also called a road block on 6 October. Whether a school will shut is something the district order will say.
Pages in the same line: the separate column demand, what Wadettiwar is saying, Chalo Delhi on 1 November and the 6 October block.
A simple example
Say a village has Yadav, Kurmi, Lohar and Badhai families. All of them can be on the OBC list. If the person doing the count writes the name by hand, one house gets Kurmi, another gets Kurmi Yadav, and a third gets only farmer. Later the three do not become one number. Picking from a drop-down puts these names in one place. Only then can a state say how many people are in OBC. The talk of a job percent and a college seat stands on that number.
This is not the job-letter story
Today’s street is about the census column. The 27 percent quota and the held recruitment in Madhya Pradesh are another story. The notice there is from 2019, and the appointment letter comes on a department order. The Kunbi certificate and the Maratha reservation fight in Maharashtra are separate. The teacher recruitment in Uttar Pradesh is separate. The Bengal certificate case is separate too. One day’s march is not the decision in those cases.
The numbers here are the numbers in the papers. About 65 organisations at the Delhi meeting. 11 districts of Vidarbha at the Nagpur meeting. The dates are 2 October, 25 October and 1 November. No report had one number for the crowd across the country.
Advice:
The plain point is this. People are out today because the census form does not have a separate OBC column. They want their count printed clearly, because job and college reservation is tied to that count. This march will not put an appointment letter on your roll number. If WhatsApp says lakhs of people, or that the column has been added, do not take it as a government paper. Check your district order for a closed road or a closed school. Check the state list to see if your name is on the OBC list.
