My sister is on a hunger strike, my hubby’s favorite topic of discussion is “Quota system in India n’ dirty politics”…. And as the anti reservation agitation continues, we Indians seem to have reached a deadlock. Today, I do my part by writing what I think of the whole thing.
Well, having quotas has always been a part of Indian constitution. When India got itz independence in 1947 perhaps it was something which was needed. So we had separate reservations for SC/ST, OBC, minorities etc etc. We grew as a country and so did the quotas!! The question is not whether quota should be increased or not… the question is whether the quota system should be there at all? I have a lot of SC/ST and OBC friends and their financial status is better than mine ever has been. I see so many poor in India who never get a chance to progress ‘coz they do not fall in one of those reservations.
Today we stand on the threshold of being called a country to reckon with… yet we refuse to let go of age old agendas. Time has come for us to have an income based reservation rather than caste based reservations. By making more of the caste-based reservations, we are not only creating inequality but also re-dividing our already divided society! What happened to “united we stand, divided we fall?” Huh! Seems like it was one of those class room lessons which never made it to real life.
Every single day I get a mail informing me about some poor medico dying of hunger.. each time I open a news website I see pictures of the agitators, I see my sister and her friends (all medicos) passionate about the whole issue,… why is the government turning blind eye to the people? When is our politics and politicians gonna finally be “for the people”, when will they stop looking at doing things just to gain some political mileage? Do we the people of India have any say at all in our country………democracy…Blah! To me it sounds nothing of that sort!! I am sure government will not retrace itz steps and never listen to people…….. letz see if my prediction comes true…………meanwhile all we can do is protest , so go on….do that!
7 comments:
I see...you have your thoughts. Good! But one thing I don't understand is why this much protest when the unpriviledged are getting some benefits just because they suffered a lot before? Why don't ppl protest against the Managament quota or NRI quota instead always cry upon the lower caste ppl. Infact, what I feel is that they are having their time. For they suffered a lot before and now it the time for their suffreings to transform. What wrong is it, when they are given certain extra quota? Can't other classes wait for their time like these ppl who waited for ages and lived their lives as slaves under the high classes?
Well... this was what I felt and you know what? From the heart, I feel reservations should be banned but at the same time, NRI and management quotas should also be banned.
1. In principal, I am against reservation because it is divisive and reverse-discriminatory.
2. In practice, the tendency to justify anything and everything in the name of "injustice of 5000 years" is unacceptable. Being born in the "forward caste" is not in any individual's hand, nor is it a crime. So, one can not be discriminated against simply because of being in the forward class unless due solid justifications for the same is given. (Not emotional and false moral crap in the name of justification please!!)
3. Since we do not live in a perfect world and yes - in certain circumstances reservations may do some good. I am ready to accept those. But the attitude should not be that "of course reservation is their birth right, the monitoring, accountability etc. can be discussed at at some point of time in eternity". No! Reservation is nobody's birth right. It is a conscious attempt to correct some imbalances and can not be taken as granted for ever. So, at any point of time the question to be answered is not "Why not reservation?" The right question is "Why reservation?". What this means is that the onus of proving the need has to be on those proposing reservations. Not otherwise. There is nothing "naturally right" about reservations. There is nothing naturally right about punishing me for something my ancestors (for whom I won't even remember the names). And monitoring and accountability is not a minor issue that "can be worked out". Reservation is not to be done, if these processes can not be put in place.
4. SC/STs and OBCs should not be talked of in the same breadth. SCs were untouchables, STs were out of the mainstream socio-economic system. OBCs are a variety of people and no such one characteristic of history can be assigned to them. They were backward in different parts of the country and at different times for different reasons. For example, a large number is of those castes whose occupation has been eliminated with the development of the society (potters, kahar, teli etc.). Please do not paint the pity picture of untouchables and sell the idea of OBC reservations. Please be very, very clear about it. I am not buying OBCs along with SC/STs.
5. Not all castes under OBCs are in the same situation. In fact, in many parts of the countries, they are very strong communities and have big land holdings. There are others, of course, who are in the almost as bad a situation socio-economically as some of the SC/STs. But that's not the case with all communities listed under OBCs. In fact, even in the Mandal Commission, the only Dalit member of the commission had refused to sign the report and written a note of dissent. He clearly separated the stronger OBCs from MBCs (Most Backward Classes) and wanted protection for them. This was so because he had genuine apprehensions that quotas will be monopolised by the stronger OBCs.
6. 52% of the population belonging to OBCs is misleading. This data is from 1931 census because 1941 census did not give reliable data amidst 2nd world war. Post-independence, census does not collect data on caste lines except for SC/STs. (supposedly because it will create caste divisiveness!). The recent most research that is available in this area is a 1999 research by National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) which puts the number of OBCs at in rural and urban areas at 37.52% and 30.38%. If you take the rural and urban population percentages from 2001 census, the overall OBC populaiton percentage comes out to be around 35.5%. (For NSSO data go to http://mospi.nic.in/stat_act_t14.htm and download Report Number 472. See "Statement 5" there. Do not get confused by the prices. You can download it for free. For Census data on rural population go to http://www.censusindia.gov.in/census_online/Population/Total_Population.aspx.
7. Now, even the Mandal Commission is almost a quarter of century old. The questions that must be answered before acting on this number is
1. How many of the castes included then can be genuinely classify to be OBCs even today?
2. How many of these are actually MBCs?
3. What is the percentage of creamy layer in the population?
Answers please. Nothing on reservation front till these are answered. Yes!!
8. Now, I will come to the dynamics of reservations. Where are reservations supposed to work? What are they supposed to achieve? A change in attitude and social behavior? You may please yourself, but that doesn't happen. By ensuring that there is such and such percentage of people in a given organization, you can not change any antipathy that may exist. So, reservations do not address the problem related to casteism. At best they can try to correct the systematic imbalances in the system which has kept certain castes out from the mainstream of education and employment. So, there are these people who are hardly educated and hardly there is employment. So, you give them reservations so that some of them come up. But then it helps only those who ultimately get the benefit. There would be only few who will be benefitted. So, how is it supposed to uplift the whole community? Well - it can not uplift the whole community as such. And if such a goal is set for reservation, the extent of the reservation will become absurd (and we are seeing it in India. That's why what was originally there for a limited period is getting extended till eternity.).
9. So, the question is that how reservations can help at all? Before getting into how reservation can provide any help at all, I would like to talk of two different kinds of systems. The first is the kind for which I would consider IITs as the best example. These are the places where the criteria for selection are well defined and there are little chances of the bias of individuals inside the system affecting the outcome. JEE is such a criteria. Somebody may talk of "systematic biases" and other such things, but I will take that up later. These criteria may not be the ultimate test of aptitude and merit and whatever else, but the point is that individual's bias can not affect the outcome. Then there are systems like civil services. Here processes like Interviews have a major role to play in the outcome of the selection process. And the potential of individual's (interviewer's) bias coming into play are very high.
10. In the first kind of system, the only thing reservation can help with is creating role models in particular sectors. So, if four persons from an otherwise backward community get educated, it encourages others to break the barrier. The internal motivation, which was suppressed due to historical experiences of the community, can be rekindled. In the second kind of systems, again reservation creates role models. But also, by getting more insiders from the community, it can reduce the barrier created by individual's bias in the selection process.
11. The next obvious questions are reservations at what level, to what extent and till when?
–
avinash
Hi I agree with you there.
I have posted my view on reservations at http://www.vidya-ngo.blogspot.com
alpna
dear avinash ...
u r comment on this post was a very well thought one, and took my time readin and re-reading through it ...to assimilate the data ....
set me thinking and thanks for that :)
Avinash,
Excellent and right on the money.
This biggest problem as you point out is that people extend the oppression script of SC/STs to cover OBCs.
Visit Reality Check India and share any data you might have about OBCs.
Do not stop writing. We need you. Why dont you start a blog ?
let the force be with and God give us the power and courage to fight this battle till the end. We cannot afford to lose this battle as this is the most important battle in the life of our times and history should not accuse of being cowards. It's time to show courage to stick to the cause.
We need to motivate, encourage and persuade ourselves to the cause of equality and try to campaign actively, everyday, every night and every breath for this cause.
Withdrawal of the strike by doctors does not mean anything to the campaign. The campaign will continue till equality is restored in the society.
We need to keep the campaign alive and need to ensure that this fight continues for weeks and months till the government and Supreme Court make a case in our favor and abolish all forms of reservation.
The fight has to be persistent and continuous and non-violent and there must be no let down and it must gather momentum every day and fall on the government like a huge juggernauting snowball.
In a soceity where there is abundance creating quota does not adversely effect the legitmate receivers of benefit. In our country with its meager resources providing quota means harming the legitmate meritorious students.
principles and ideals which were on the forefront during independence times have taken back seat with the current parliamentarians. The current breed of parliamentarians work for benefit of themselves and their community. They are unconcerned about their acts adversely effecting huge sections of population. They reinforce their arguments with seemingly irrational arguments. The current media quality has deteriorated to such low standards that emotional and irrational logic are made to sound seeming and reasonable.
The need is to continue the agitation till the equality is resotred in democracy. Everyone must do their part in spreading the word and strenghtening the campaign.
Finally, Aamir Khan has decided to come out in support of the quota system.
He has decided to write to the Human Resource Minister Arjun Singh giving him guidelines and directions on removing obstacles and implementing the policy. He is only doing this as an ordinary citizen would do to exercise his democratic right.
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