Imperatives of Reservation Policy : A Perspective
Dr.T.K.Chatterjee*
The Context
There is an
eternal debate about the desirability of reservations in jobs and in admission
in educational institutions in post-independent India. One of the several voices of protest against
affirmative action in general and reservations in particular for the poor and
marginalized sections of our population in the SC/ST/OBC categories is that the disadvantages arising out of poverty are not correlated to caste identity. A group
of scholars, generally belonging to the upper-cast urban dewellers, argue that there are huge numbers of poor people across
any group having distinct identity along
cast, class, ethnicity or religious lines and
each such group need special support of
the state irrespective of identity. It
is also argued that poverty-related disadvantages are randomly distributed
between castes and there is no case for
focusing on specific groups. In other words, they object to the concept of
reservations for the SC/ST/OBC communities as an instrument of state
intervention to ensure equity and social
justice to these groups with the overall
objective of breaking caste-barriers in accessing social mobility.
Another
commentary against the policy of reservation relates to the fear of declining merit
and other quality indicators in consequence, be it in education,
professional jobs, services or other activities. The so-called cast-neutral
scholars argue that the global standards of quality assurance required in
higher education, particularly in technical and professional education,
as well as in the world of services and jobs, call for entry only on
merit to prevent murder of quality benchmarks.
However, there
are no data to validate these contentions.
On the contrary, the experience of development in the states in South India where reservation in more deeply
entrenched and the percentage of reservation is much more than 50%, proves that
human resources from the backward castes could unleash their productive
energy for economic growth as they came to terms with modern education. It has
been well established by the level of development across other cities in India
that reservations actually have contributed to nation-building besides generating more competitiveness and productivity among the stake holders in
an ambience of social harmony and justice.
In India, the system of reservation provides a mechanism of peaceful
transformation of the cast-centered society and a redefinition of merit.
The latent
casteism prevalent in the group of
scholars and media under reference only
reveals their stark hatred towards the communities bearing the load of
deprivations over centuries but in the guise of cast-neutral contemporary urban
India. In fact, the operation of cast barriers and cast hierarchies over
centuries come as natural and
eternal to the
anti-reservationist lobby comprising a large section of upper cast intellectuals
and media. What is even worse, the domination of the upper cast mindset among the wider public is such that these
beliefs are not seen as casteist but their questioning is. It is also asserted
that reservations were almost extinct before it was resurrected by the Mandal
Commission and subsequently asserted by 93rd amendment of the
Constitution. These casteist arguments
and loaded perceptions pose serious threats
to social cohesion and national unity as these are aimed to keep the
majority of our population entrenched in untouchability, illiteracy, underdevelopment,
unemployment and poverty perpetuated by brahminical cast hierarchies.
The imperatives of reservation
As presented above, one of the key issues in
the debate over reservation policy is whether cast, as in SC/ST/OBC communities, is a factor in perpetuation of discriminations
of all types resulting in poverty and
marginalization. Dr.Aswini Deshpande ( Economic & Political Weekly,
June 17, 2006) has done an elaborate study to prove that the indicators of social advantage or lack of it
are clearly stratified by caste. She has taken into account indicators like
monthly per capita expenditure, land holding, occupational attainment,
ownership of consumer assets, type of housing and poverty ratio among others
from two national survey reports, namely, National Sample Survey ( NSS ) and
National Family Health Survey ( NFHS ).
The Census Report was excluded because OBC as a separate category is not counted in this report. The study
unequivocally reveals gross disparity between communities belonging to
SC/ST/OBC and others ( non-SC/ST/OBC ) and that
distribution of both income and wealth are highly skewed along cast lines.
According to the data presented in the second round of NFHS, cast disparities
in occupational attainment are : 68% of SCs, 75% of STs and 61% of OBCs are
agricultural and manual labourers while
for the upper castes it is 47%. Among the professional/managerial and higher
level administrative jobs, the share of OBCs is 8% compared to 13% for the upper castes. In this study, the researcher has
developed a Cast Development Index ( CDI
)based on five indicators like landholding, occupation, education, consumer
durable ownership and asset ownership. It turns out that both in rural and
urban India, the CDI for the SC, ST, OBC are much less than for others or the residual
population. The data for OBC include the creamy layer of OBC in absence of separate
data to account for the wide divergence that indeed exists within OBCs.
Obviously, if the creamy layer is excluded, the status of the more
disadvantaged OBC will be much poorer.
The findings
challenge the notion that social and economic disadvantages are randomly distributed among
poor people and that there is no case for correlating deprivation with caste identity. It is now widely accepted
that the cast –ridden Hindu Brahminical society has, over centuries, subjected
the lower cast people to dual exploitations
on the basis of both poverty and
cast denying access to resources and pushing them to abject marginalization. The study has established
a case for special intervention by the state for these groups with reservation
quota in accessing education and jobs to
bring to them the benefits of equity and social justice.
It needs to
be emphasized that the disparities are not only hang over of the
pre-independent past. Data released by the Govt. of India in various reports
and the extant literature on the dalits reveal that inter-cast inequalities are
not only very strong in contemporary India as measured by monthly per capita
expenditure and other developmental indicators but these inequalities are steadily
increasing together with wide regional variations. A similar situation exists
in the labour market. There are pre-market discriminations afflicting the lower
cast human resources due to differences in access and quality of education other than treatments meted out by the
providers. In the job market too, discriminations and cast prejudices lead them
to different kinds of jobs and different wages for similar jobs. Besides
this, the role of cast in allocation of
more traditional jobs in the rural belt is well documented. Additionally,
casteist discriminations affect the job search process too. There is very
little role of merit in job search where ‘who you know’ is often more important
than ’what you know’. Various studies have revealed that even for highly
qualified persons, there are big differences between dalits and others in job
search process, eventual placement, salaries, waiting period and job types.
Conclusion
The
discussion presented above exhorts us to conclude that special support
must be continued by the state to provide equity and social justice to the deprived and marginalized masses. Reservation
of seats in admission to education institutions of any level and in jobs in public as well as in private sectors for
the SC, ST, OBC categories is an urgent
imperative in the interest of
nation-building with social harmony and cohesion. Reservation is, however, just
one component of affirmative action,
though the most important. Other empowerment activities like stipends and
scholarships, incentives to female students, sensitization programmes to avail
education, preventing drop-out rates, remedial coaching, special coaching for
competitive examinations, vocational and skill development training etc. need
to be taken forward with equal earnestness.
The democratic polity must ensure equal opportunities to all sections of the
population for faster growth and
development of the national economy. As enshrined in our Constitution, given
the historical backwardness of the SC/ST/OBC groups in a cast-ridden social
system, realization of a truly inclusive society requires that vigorous
efforts in a mission-mode be implemented
and concrete goals be set to break the cast
barriers. This national calls for special focus to the dalits and oppressed castes through active reservation policy and other
affirmative action in order to generate social mobility to them with complete equality of opportunities.
Concurrently, it is necessary to monitor the outcomes very strictly in respect
of both affirmative action and structural changes.
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