Thanks for bringing this up Nutan. In my opinion, the problems that the reservation policy is trying to address is either not very clear or not well understood. And to reach a mutually agreed solution, we first need to agree on the problems that the policy should try to address. I have pointed out some from my experiences.
1. Historical Oppression: Some may feel that the policy of reservation is in lieu of the atrocities that people of certain communities went through. 2. Financial Disadvantage: Some feel that it is meant to take care of the lack of educational opportunities because of poverty. There are certain castes which are generally poorer than others. This gives way to the lack of opportunities for kids born in such communities and which in turn may affect their academic performance. The logic here is to lower the barriers for people from such disadvantaged sections and thereby provide them an equal opportunity and a chance to improve their financial conditions. 3. Social Disadvantage: The way our society is structured in India, most kids get to interact only with people from their castes. This is more prevalent in socially backward castes. Most such families lack a good foresight and fail to understand the importance of schooling. There is also a extreme lack of success stories among such communities. Therefore, even if such families are well off financially, the kids grow up without a good role model (anyone in the family, neighbors or relatives that they can look up for inspiration) and lack the will-power and confidence. Some may feel that reservation can help create more heroes, role-models and handles the lack of will-power and confidence. 4. Social Diversity: The purpose of reservation may also be to increase the social diversity at various levels of the government and academic institutions. This may help people overcome the social stigma and also lend a voice to every section of the society at every level. There may be more that I might have missed. Please feel free to add, advice and help us understand the real issues and problems and need to be addressed. Once we understand the exact problems, we can decide on the ideal condition we would want to be in and then the path to it. My personal opinion is that because of social inequalities, India is under-performing by a huge margin. Under the current circumstances only a small section of the society is actually churning out the majority of the scientists, engineers, doctors and other professionals. Our target should be to increase the size of this section of society (this can be done by various means, reservation is just one of those). In long term, this should result in increase in quality and quantity of talent in India. Thanks Amit Srivastava ________________________________ From: Nutan Thakur <[email protected]> To: Bharat Uday Mission <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, August 7, 2010 11:01:33 AM Subject: [bm] Reservation Friends, In India, if anything triggers real public outbursts and acrimony, it is the issue of reservation policy in jobs, education and political posts. Without going into the background of the matter, which we all know to a greater or lesser extent, I would like to present the current situation about how reservation policy stands today and how it is being perceived by the different concerned parties. If there is a policy based on any kind of discrimination or differentiation (whether positive or negative) it is bound to result in two obvious groups- one those who can be called the beneficiaries of this policy and the others who think they are losing some of their natural rights because of such a policy. And the reaction of both the groups is bound to be exactly opposite to each-other. Yet, we will have to understand that a policy-measure is not only to be based on the perceived gains and losses of the concerned groups but also needs to be properly evaluated from a supposedly neutral perspective, as much based on facts, figures, logic and arguments as possible. Now those who are getting some kind of reservations in their favour while fundamentally agreeing to this policy have a general response that though the society in general has benefitted out of this, yet they hugely lament the fact that the different governments and their agencies are not sincere in implementing these reservation polices in letter and spirit. They have their own figures and information about the extent to which reservation policies are being put into practice in different government departments, educational institutions and so on. And many a times these information go on top confirm their statement and claim that so many of the government agencies are openly violating the laws provided by the Indian constitution itself. They find it a very serious lapse, being highly unconstitutional and discriminatory. These people feel that the vested interests among the non-reserved categories being in superior positions in most of the organizations and Institutions deliberately and intentionally indulge in acts which go on to adversely affect the interests of these people as granted through so many Acts, rules, provisions and even Judicial decisions. Coming to the other group, they have their own set of issues. The very first is that they find it atrocious and completely erroneous for them to be deprived of certain privileges just because they are born in different Castes. To them reservation of seats, right from the Academic Institutions to the government and government related jobs to the reservations made for seats to Parliaments and State Assemblies are nothing but an unfair practice. They go to the extent of calling it being against their natural rights. They call it being against merit and being detrimental to the country’s progress. The more radical among these people are totally opposed to reservation of any kind, at all possible levels. Slightly less conservative people would agree to providing these so-called reserved categories with suitable financial and other relevant supports so that they do not feel handicapped vis-a-vis the non-reserved categories but feel that the discrimination shall end here. Another lot agrees to reservation up to educational institutions but not later. Some are more lenient and would even accept reservation up to entry in jobs but find it completely unpalatable if it is done even in promotions. Thus we have strong reactions and views on both the sides, this being a matter related with general public in a most direct manner. Which have these two are stating the truth is a subject matter of great discussion and controversy. But then, in a democracy we can’t shy away from an issue just because it is controversial and has the capabilities of generating great heat and dust. This matter has huge simmering potentials on both sides of the fence and is a major negative factor in way to complete Nation building. Dr Nutan Thakur, Editor, People’s Forum, Lucknow # 94155-34525
