More to reservations...

Post by Ankit Khanna

Last week she asked me whether I support reservations or not? I simply said, Yes I do but not in the current format. Then we went on discussing further, followed by her post on reservations. In her post, she nicely presented the case but refrained from passing any views or judgements. Definitely, I am not the expert or the right person to comment on this critical issue, still would like to touch sensitive areas around this issue.

In ancient India, division of labour was done on the basis of castes. The society was divided primarily into four castes, Brahmins occupying the 'Raja' status and Harijans at the lower end. Brahmins were considered to be the people with brains and knowledgeable. Harijans did all the 'shit' work. This led to the greater division of the society in terms of opportunities and standard living. Not much attention was paid to this issue till the time of Independence. After Independence, leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Bhim Rao Ambedkar (a Harijan) tried to address the problem and presented solution in the Constitution in the form of reservations. The underlined philosophy is

''..some sections of the society (SC/ST) were deprived of equal social, economic and educational opportunities, so they are socially and economically backward now. In order to bring equality in society, reservations are introduced to bring the weaker sections to the forefront by providing deprived opportunities across:

a. Educational institutions: schools, colleges.
Reason: Education is the foundation
b. Governemnt jobs
Reason: To bring equality in the society
c. Concessions in fees, fares etc
Reason: They are economically weak''

All sounds good here and then. But what essentially went wrong:

a. At the time of introduction, no deadline was kept when these reservations would end. They can't be perpetual.
b. If one generation has availed the benefit of reservation, it can't be considered socially backward. Agree?
c. Are economically well-off sections of SC/ST eligible?
d. How can these steps ensure change in mentality of so-called socially forward sections of the society?
e. If the college has 100 seats andd 27 are reserved. But the students competing for these 27 seats are less, resulting in lower passing marks causing inequality in the level of standards of education. How to deal with it?
f. If I know I have a reserved seat and i can get it by studying/working less, why would I study more?
g. Now more groups: OBCs, Gujjars etc demand reservation for themselves.
h. Reservations are used by political parties to attract vote banks.
i. In some regions, reservations are now on the basis of religon.

These are few. But the list is long. But i am still clueless on the solution. Any suggestions?