Unemployment and Reservation

In the light of the protests from the Jat community in Haryana, observing “Balidan Divas” (Day of Sacrifice) and continuing their agitation for reservation among other issues, which entered its 22^nd day on 19^th February 2017, the question arises as to whether reservation system is at all linked to the problem of unemployment in India. The agitation has its main objective as reservation in the education sector and government jobs for the Jat community.

Unemployment Problem in India

Unemployment, if put in simpler terms, is nothing but the state of being unemployed. India has her hands full with so many problems and unemployment is one of the major ones. The number of unemployed people, especially youths, in India has reached an alarming stage and if the latest UN Labor report is to be considered, this number is expected to see a marginal increase in 2017-18 which hints at stagnation of job creation in the country. The 2017 World Employment and Social Outlook report, released by the UN International Labor Organization (ILO), projects the economic growth of the country falling behind the current employment needs, resulting in rising unemployment and intensifying social inequality. The unemployment rate in India will remain 3.4% in 2017-18.

Some of the causes of unemployment in India are –

• Lack of education: Increase in population and the lack of any proper technical and vocational knowledge among them.
• Under-industrialization: Even with the scope of progress in industrialization, it is not properly distributed across the potential and diverse locations of India, leading to under-industrialized regions which cannot employ people.
• Slow growth process: Even though the Indian economy and production have grown, the rate of growth was inadequate to meet the target, failing to solve the problem of unemployment.
• Foreign technology: India has a special fondness for foreign collaborations, which more often than not, requires technical, consultancy and design services and this is the reason for increase in technological unemployment in the country.
• Capital intensive projects: In a labor surplus economy like India, much attention has been given to capital intensive projects and this has resulted in use of automatic machines and other technologies which doesn’t require manual labor, becoming another reason for the rising unemployment.

Reservation – is it the solution or the problem itself?

Coming back to main issue let us now analyze whether reservation is the solution for unemployment in India.

Different communities, who are already recognized under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category like the Jats, Kapus, Patels and many others, are demanding for reservation in education and government jobs, which clearly shows their state in the current job market. Not only is the Indian economy not creating enough jobs but wages in the public sector are much higher than the private sector at an entry level and this gap will grow once the 7th Pay Commission recommendations are implemented.

In a scenario like this it is highly unlikely that the reservation system will solve the problem of unemployment because of the following reasons –

• Reducing opportunities: The opportunities in the public sector are shrinking, coming down to 17.6Mn at present from 19.5Mn in 1996-97. According to Govt. data, the public sector has been hiring around 3Lakhs people in a yr during the period 2006-14 when around 8-10Lakhs Indian youths were entering the job market annually.
• Benefits to the creamy layer: Most of the benefits of the reservation system have been enjoyed by the educated elites from the creamy layer. Even though the benefits are applicable to the rich and poor alike, it generally accrues for those who already owning advantages of wealth and education.
• Unavailability of jobs: the reservation system was supposed to bring uniformity and harmony in the society. But uniformity and harmony cannot be restored until and unless there are fair amount of jobs available.

Apart from the above there are other problems in the reservation system which is why it may not be the ideal solution to the unemployment problem of India.

But in some cases reservation system itself is the problem as a major section of people, entitled to the benefits of this system, are left deprived because of their economic condition.

In order to come to a solution for this problem of unemployment, we first need to understand the causes behind it and then rationally try to figure out a solution which will be beneficial to all Indians, irrespective of their caste and creed. When a person is going to take admission in a school or college, how does it matter if that person belongs to general/SC/ST/OBC category? The only things that should matter are his merit and his economic condition. We can find several instances where a student even after securing the required marks could not take admission in his preferred college simply because of his economic condition. Marks weightage should be given to the under-privileged children instead of the reserved category.

Conclusion

India, being a developing country, projects example of the reservation system which is nothing but casteism. It is leading the country towards discrimination and conflict among different sections of the people where some claim to deserve more benefits than the other classes. What is far more surprising is that the Indian Constitution itself is reservation-friendly and does not define the term “backward classes” anywhere.

When the existing reservation system has so many problems within, it is more than obvious that it cannot be the solution to the unemployment problem in India. The reservation mechanism must be such that it will filter the economically deprived section of the society and empower them with proper education and knowledge which will ultimately help India in the long run to solve the problem of unemployment. Apart from this, it should also be kept in mind that the people facing unemployment problem are mostly from educated middle class families who may already have the option of reservation but the main problem is the inadequate job availability. And the solution for this problem is creating jobs, irrespective of caste, with the help of infrastructure development and economic stimulation alongside implementing programs like Start Up India, Make In India, Digital India, Stand up India, etc.