Caste Based Reservation in India
The idea of caste based reservation had come up in later part of 19th century by William Hunter, Jyotiba Phule etc. and was first introduced by Chhatrapati Sahu in 1902 by sanctioning 50% Reservation for the backward Classes in Kolhapur State Services.
Objectives
The key objectives were: To uplift lower strata of society; to ensure proper political representation of minority groups; to ensure that minorities are not discriminated in job selections and promotion.
Achievements
However, the system has failed to achieve its objectives because it was – not able to reduce dropout rates {the most unprivileged children don’t turn up in schools}; not improved the income share of poor and downtrodden much {most dalits still live in misery}; has not improved the quality of the education; is not inclusive of all poor sections of the society {leaves out the poor people from higher castes}; creates imbalance {due to fixed percentage of seats in jobs and admissions}.
Alternatives
The alternatives are – income based reservation {but that also has its own caveats as we have not been able define so far, who exactly is poor, and this system cannot work until there is 100% enrolment; issue is same that its poverty that leads to illiteracy, which leads to misery}; limiting caste based reservation to one generation {this implies that a reserved category candidate can use quota for only his own – for his education; job and promotion, but once that has been done; his own progeny should be counted in creamy layer based on income; but this also has its limitations because most seats for SC/ST remain unfilled and many a time recruitment drives are done to fill the backlog}.
Demands of reservation by Higher Castes
Reservation in India is a form of affirmative action for the unprivileged section in order to enable them to be a part of the mainstream society by providing them quota in jobs and education.
However, in the recent past there has been a demand from many of the sections of the society which are privileged to be included in the reservation and be given a quota as such. Patel agitation in Gujarat, Jat stir in Haryana, Gujjar stir in Rajasthan, Kapu community stir in AP/Telangana are some of these examples.
The demand by these castes is manifold. The young Jats, Patels, Kapus and Marathas who do not find good jobs in the private sector fall back on the government. The search for government jobs among these castes is also influenced by their particularly skewed sex ratio. Parents of girls prefer grooms with stable income – those with government jobs are often their preferred choice. With fewer girls compared to boys in these castes, there is competition in the marriage market.
What should be done?
A dedicated study has to be made analyzing the relationship between the reservation, growth and development. Based on the study, the reservation policy has to be revamped. Reservation pleas without proper justification and rationale should not be accommodated.
