“The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all it’s citizens, and declares it’s resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all it’s parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally”
– Patrick Pearse
Reservation : The cycle of time
But the question is, does it?. Especially in the case of India. Where the government discriminate among it’s citizen on the basis of the caste they are born in. A justification of reservation is given that it empowers the communities those were suppressed and shoved in the darkness of poverty and illiteracy due to the social discrimination done to them over the long period of time.
Now let’s understand what was the the social discrimination that was done to these communities. They were not given the chance to educate themselves and their children. The members of the higher classes were given priority in all the occupations and decisions withstanding of their lack of skills and knowledge which in turn resulted their social backwardness and poverty.
Don’t you think that is somewhat similar to the behavior that a certain class of people are experiencing today, When they are denied admission in an educational institute despite having very good marks, When they are denied promotion despite having good credentials and working at least as hard as others. Why? Because they born in a certain class.
The reservation policy of India doesn’t consider money or education as the criteria for being socially backward. The sole criteria is your caste. And if it does in some cases, the classification is so vague and ineffective that it makes little difference.
Everybody agrees to the fact that the socially backward communities and people should be empowered and brought in the main stream of the society. But don’t you think that Reservation is the wrong policy to do so? It is just a momentary upliftment of the individual, based on his birth. How far has it succeeded in ensuring the upliftment of a class if still approximately 50% of the population of scheduled caste and tribe are below the poverty line. It has never been and never will be the solid and concrete solution to the problem. It is just a tool of appeasement used by the leaders of almost all political parties to ensure their power. And one of the most dangerous and disturbing downfall of this system is it’s approach for social justice.
Let’s take an analogy here and understand the system. If two people are to be run in a race, and one is more fit and healthy and trained than the other. The reservation policy do no effort in making the other more deserving and fit instead it disqualify the first candidate.
Dangerous trend of Reservation
How is this healthy for a society which is already divided on such a lengths on caste and birth. It gives rise to more disparity and hatred among the people.
It causes an inefficient structure where a person who is more talented and deserving loses his chance of job and promotion to a professional who is inferior in skills to him even in life saving professions like Doctors. Is it at least morally justified?
And the worst of it all, it has become a political tool. Everybody wants reservation. And most of them get it either due to the electoral politics of politicians or by intimidating the government and system. It has become a vote generator for the political parties and lost all it’s sense of social justice.
Some states like Andhra Pradesh ,Tamilnadu and Maharasthra have even crossed the bar of 50% in the reservation policy. For example AP provide 66.66% combining all the categories. Which is alarming because there is practically no room for a large community in terms of opportunities.
According to the clause 2 article 16 –No citizen on ground of religion, race , caste, sex ,descent, place of birth, residence or any of them be discriminated in respect of any employment or office under the state.
However there is also a provision of special policies for upliftment of Backward class under clause 4 of the same article. But if the policy of upliftment is the Reservation policy, it directly contradicts the clause 2 as well as Articles 14-18 for a candidate of General category. Because you are in a way depriving him of a right to good education and ofcourse employment.
We have to think hard and fast about the policy of Reservation or at least the criteria for reservation. It has become a fashion to get and give reservation to different classes. And if you don’t have sufficient numbers you are marginalized. The recent uproars by some well to do classes in different parts of the country and the approach of the government in dealing with these have raised some serious concerns. Patels in Gujrat, Jats in Haryana , Rajputs in Rajsthan……..
What’s next ? Is the approach of Reservation Justified or is it just a political Hoax ????
References:
1.Background of Reservation ( Living condition of people of different class in ancient India ) – Book ( A wonder that was India by A L Basham)
2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_in_India#Reservation_in_promotion
4.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_in_India#Reservations_in_Andhra_Pradesh
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