For several years, there has been a persistent demand by the Maratha community in Maharashtra for a reservation quota in jobs and education under the state government. Driven largely by the economic distress and backwardness of a majority of the Maratha farmer class, the Maratha reservation<\/a>, through widespread marches and rallies over the years, became a major political issue that has no sustainable solution within the existing constitutional framework. After the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government came to power in 2014, the new Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis decided to address the Maratha issues with sincere planning and concrete actions. On one hand, his government introduced several self-employment\/entrepreneurship schemes for the Maratha youth with easy and interest-free financing, to foster financial empowerment of the community, and on the other hand, he kept trying to establish the legality of the Maratha reservation demand. In 2018, he successfully secured a unanimous legislative mandate through the State Assembly to grant 16 percent reservation to the Maratha community under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) category. While raising no objections to the principle of this reservation, the Bombay High Court subsequently directed that the quota be adjusted to range between 12 and 13 percent. In compliance with this directive, on July 1, 2019, the Fadnavis government passed an amendment bill, without any dissent, providing for 12 percent reservation in education and 13 percent reservation in public employment. However, subsequently, in 2019, a change of power occurred in the state, and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government assumed office. During the tenure of this government, the Maratha reservation issue was not given the importance; consequently, on May 5, 2021, the Supreme Court struck down the reservation, ruling that it exceeded the 50 percent reservation cap. Furthermore, the Court clarified that the Maratha community could not be classified as educationally or socially backward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In June 2022, power changed hands once again in the state with the Mahayuti government assuming office. The Maratha reservation issue came back to limelight again. In February 2024, during a special session of the Legislative Assembly, the Mahayuti government introduced the Maratha Reservation Bill, 2024, and passed it without any opposition. Through this bill, the Maratha community was granted a separate 10% reservation in education and government jobs. This reservation will be over and above the overarching quota ratios and will exclude the \u2018creamy layer\u2019 of the Maratha community. While there will be no conflict with the existing reservation quotas, the total reservation rate in the state has risen to 62%. Currently, this reservation provides statutory relief to the Maratha community. However, the state government did not rely solely on this reservation measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emphasizing the fundamental issues faced by the Maratha community, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis revived the Annasaheb Patil Arthik Vikas Mahamandal <\/a>and reformed its functioning, projecting it as a vital node to implement the developmental schemes for the economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society. Currently, this institute runs several government schemes providing finance and guidance to scores of young people from the poor and disadvantaged sections of the Maratha and other communities. The Annasaheb Patil Arthik Vikas Mahamandal, originally established in 1998 to assist Maratha youth with self-employment initiatives, was not running well and had lost its importance. In 2017, he discontinued the Corporation’s older schemes, which had failed to garner a favorable response, and launched three new schemes<\/a> in their place. The Corporation’s capital fund was increased from \u20b950 crore to \u20b9400 crore<\/a>. Later on, this fund was further augmented and now stands at \u20b9750 crore. Furthermore, to ensure that a larger number of Maratha youth could avail themselves of the Corporation’s schemes, the annual income ceiling was raised<\/a> to \u20b96 lakh, and later to \u20b98 lakh. This measure resulted in a significant increase in the number of beneficiaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By July 2025, a total of \u20b91,247.79 crore had been disbursed to various sections of the Maratha community through the Corporation. Under the Individual Loan Interest Refund Scheme, bank loans amounting to \u20b912,591.73 crore were sanctioned to 149,532 beneficiaries. Of these, 120,547 beneficiaries have received interest refunds totaling \u20b91,213.61 crore. To support the education of children from the Maratha community, the State Government, under the Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Education Fees Scholarship Scheme, provided \u20b9181 crore to 155,000 students in 2022\u201323, \u20b9143 crore to 107,000 students in 2023\u201324, and \u20b9160.55 crore to 53,975 students in 2024\u201325. Meanwhile, a budgetary provision of \u20b9170.55 crore has been made for the year 2025\u201326.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Devendra Fadnavis government worked in various ways to uplift different sections of the Maratha community. The objective was to ensure that the youth belonging to the Maratha, Kunbi, and Maratha-Kunbi communities received opportunities for research, training, scholarships, and skill development. To this end, the Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Research, Training and Human Development Institute (SARTHI<\/a>) was established on June 25, 2018. Through this institution, various initiatives, including MPhil\/PhD scholarships, online training for police recruitment, assistance for UPSC\/MPSC examinations, as well as skill and entrepreneurship development schemes, are currently being implemented. For the Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Education Fees Reimbursement Scheme<\/a>, budgetary provisions have been made in the state budget, amounting to \u20b9181.08 crore for 155,265 students in 2022-23; \u20b9143.04 crore for 107,850 students in 2023-24; \u20b9160.55 crore (Revised Estimate) for 53,975 students in 2024-25; and \u20b9170 crore for approximately 5.5 lakh students in 2025-26. Apart from these, several initiatives are being implemented, such as the Maharani Tararani National Scholarship (for coaching and support to eligible students for competitive examinations), Rajmata Jijau Skill Development, Chhatrapati Rajaram Entrepreneurship Skill Development, Computer Skill Development, SARTHI Youth Personality Development, and the Indo-German Tool Room project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Owing to this comprehensive approach, Devendra Fadnavis’s leadership has made meaningful changes to the lives of hundreds and thousands of Maratha youth, helping them stand on their feet and lead dignified lives. His practical and prudent decisions are helping the Maratha community achieve the empowerment, equality, and social justice, which they longed to achieve through their decade long agitations, but without politicizing the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Related articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the past 10\u201312 years, Devendra Fadnavis, in his various roles, has prioritized the economic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maratha-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13497"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13513,"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13497\/revisions\/13513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Devendra](\"https:\/\/devgatha.in\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/devendra-fadnavis-maratha-reservation.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Mahayuti Government Grants 10% Reservation to the Maratha Community<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Annasaheb Patil Arthik Vikas Mahamandal Was Strengthened<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Research, Training and Human Development Institute (SARTHI)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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