The Indian parliament has passed an amendment to the constitution which seeks to raise the number of government jobs that can be reserved for people from the lower castes.

Currently no more than 50% of such jobs are allowed to be reserved but correspondents say that with lower castes forming nearly half of India's population, political parties are keen to win their support.

The government has been engaged in a battle with the Supreme Court which earlier ruled against raising the 50% ceiling.

Lower caste groups say the limit must be raised to clear the backlog of vacancies; but other communities argue to do so would discriminate against them.

A decision to allocate nearly 30% of jobs to lower castes 10 years ago sparked off violent clashes between members of the different communites.

It led to some upper caste students setting fire to themselves in protest.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service