Undoubtedly, the Supreme Court in a recent judgement has allowed 27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Central educational institutions; it has raised questions on the efficacy of such a policy for bringing equality in the society. While observing that there had been no deletion from the list of other backward classes, the judgement, inter alia, noted: “It goes on increasing… is it that backwardness has increased instead of decreasing? If the answer is yes, as contended by the respondents (Centre and other pro-quota parties), then one is bound to raise eyebrows as to the effectiveness of providing reservations or quotas.”
While pointing out that since the concept of OBC came into picture there has been no deletion of any caste from the category, the Apex Court asked the Centre to deliberate whether the reservation policy followed since Independence had been effective in achieving the desired result. While adding that the affirmative action had got somewhat complicated in India on account of caste politics, the judgement further said: “If after nearly six decades the objectives have not been achieved, necessarily the need for its continuance warrants deliberations. It is to be noted that some of the provisions were intended to be replaced after a decade but have continued. It directly shows that backwardness appears to have purportedly increased and not diminished.”
The politics of reservations has taken deep roots in the Indian polity and reservation issue has become a buzzword for almost all political parties to hoodwink the masses and capitalize on their gullibility. Recently Gujjars have come out with demand for reservations so that they could benefit from job guarantees and handouts that flow from ‘reservation,’ India’s form of ‘affirmative action’ for its lower castes. Recently, the people in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest state, delivered an overwhelming mandate to a party committed to expanding reservations for the Dalits. Such events bring into sharp focus a larger question: Is it guarantees or opportunities that offer the best way out of social and economic backwardness?
Viewed in a historical perspective, the government’s answer to this question was somewhat schizophrenic because the elites were given opportunities, while the poorer classes were given guarantees. The Constitution itself envisaged free universal and compulsory education for children up to 14 years. But in practice, policymakers since the 1950s emphasized higher education, which largely benefited urban elites who had excellent primary and secondary education. The relative neglect of basic education for the masses, meanwhile, deprived historically disadvantaged classes of similar opportunities for upward mobility. Instead, they were given guaranteed seats in colleges and public sector jobs. While these did have some benefits, by definition, only a small fraction benefited from the guarantees. This temporary, targeted fix, however, came to be regarded as a permanent solution. Guarantees have now become, insidiously, a substitute for creating opportunities.
Reservation has been an integral part of India’s founding. It is a large and blunt instrument of social engineering, taking the form of quotas. India’s Constitution mandates that 22.5 percent of all public sector employment and enrollment in government-financed higher education institutions should be reserved for “lower” groups called the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC/STs).
With the passage of time, these quotas have vastly increased instead of shrinking. At present, at least 50 percent of all public sector jobs and educational seats are reserved for SC/STs, along with another category called ‘Other Backward Classes,’ who were traditionally also discriminated against but occupied a slightly higher rung than the SC/STs in the old Indian caste hierarchy. In some states, like Tamil Nadu, the quota can approach 80 percent.
Until the recent past, reservation used to be a dividing axis in India’s national politics pitting the Congress Party, which broadly supported reservations, against its main national rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which historically opposed the policy. However, over the last two decades, there has been a remarkable shift wherein reservation has become a bipartisan issue, with politicians of all hues embracing it as an imperative of electoral success. In this environment, reservation’s reach is being extended to elite educational bastions of merit such as the Indian Institutes of Management—which populates India’s most visible companies, such as Infosys and Wipro, as well as many leading multinational firms. Stunningly, there has also been talk of extending it to private sector employment, an objective that was articulated in the electoral manifesto of the UPA.
It is interesting to observe that the public and private spheres are moving in opposite directions in India. While federal and state political actors are reinforcing guarantees over opportunities, consumer choices are clearly reflecting a preference for the latter. The spark has been provided by the turnaround in India’s economic growth, which has increased the returns to education significantly enough to trigger a mad rush to acquire education.
Even the poorest rural households have internalized the imperative of acquiring education to survive in the new knowledge-based economy. But getting this education is, unfortunately, not always easy. In rural India, free public education is supposedly universally available but it is largely dysfunctional—teachers often don’t turn up to class, and when they do, they impart little of value to students. In a surprising new trend, even the poorest are willing to forego such free public education for costly but (slightly) better private education.
Viewed in a broad spectrum, ‘Reservation’ is a term in Indian law used to describe the government policy of reserving a set percentage of seats in many aspects of Indian society, including education, and jobs in government institutes and organizations. Reservation is intended to increase social diversity in campuses and workplaces by lowering entry criteria and requiring quotas for certain social groups that are deemed under-represented. These places are set aside for members of “socially and educationally backward classes” or for the “scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes”–referred to as “untouchables” before India’s independence.
It is not surprising that India’s polity gets periodic itch to indulge in the dubious game of ‘reservations’ which would not only be socially and economically disruptive but also fragment India. It also diverts the country from the path of progress on which it wants to make rapid strides. Construed in a broad perspective, this periodic itch of the politicians emanates from the quality of India’s polity today, which is saddled with a mediocre polity devoid of noble aims, selfless service of India’s masses or the dedication to build a better India. The few honourable exceptions that exist across the vast spectrum of the various Indian political parties, essentially too, have to be paired with the mediocre lot because they lack the courage of conviction to let their conscience speak on issues which do not do justice to India’s overall interests.
According to one observer, India’s political parties across the entire political spectrum are burdened with two types of appeasement, namely the minority appeasement and the Dalit appeasement. It is a kind of ‘imperialism’ because their demands for special reservations and the political parties succumbing to their pressure gets dictated not because there are any lack of opportunities for them in the Indian polity or any discrimination, but arises from their belief that an easy way will be provided for them by political parties in a bid to woo their vote-banks.
It is an acknowledged fact that only a mediocre polity, lacking charismatic leadership qualities and mass following, has to depend on arithmetical calculations of vote banks. These vote banks are manipulated by their so-called community leaders to support a political party based on which party offers the maximum spoils in return. In this sordid process these vote-banks seem to overlook that even after 60 years of Indian independence and reservations galore made by various Governments outdoing each other, the average Indian Muslim or the average Dalit still continues as economically backward. It is so because in the pernicious reservations system in place the benefits are siphoned off by the creamy layer of these vote banks. Had the reservations ensured social justice in the last 60 years and the benefits evenly spread then today there would not have been any need for further reservations of any type? Obviously, both the aim and intent of the reservations system stands hijacked by an exploitative and mediocre polity.
One is tempted to ask that has any political leader or any political party ever carried out a social audit or survey as to where in the past six decades have these reservations led the country to after spending thousands of crores of rupees on it. Also has any political party attempted to gather statistics as to what percentage of upward economic mobility has taken place as a result of reservations in place and whether there is a cost-benefit ratio that could justify the entire concept of reservations? But then why should any political leader or political party bother to do so? Their aim is only to ensure that these vote-banks remain in political bondage in a “reservations bind” that would ensure their return to political power.
According to one opinion, India today presents a curious and intriguing spectacle where a pulsating India at large is restless to zoom forward but is impeded by the brakes of a mediocre polity. Then was it Abraham Lincoln who stated that a nation gets the government it deserves. India certainly deserves a better polity but for it to happen, India’s progressive classes have to politically empower themselves and make themselves politically relevant as a counter-balancing solid vote-bank which cannot be ignored, as it is today.
It is interesting to note that in countries like the US, the Affirmative Action Policy was started in 1964 after the enactment of the Civil Rights Act. It’s the same story for Northern Ireland, Malaysia, South Africa and Pakistan. Besides this, 52 countries have introduced reservations in the private sector. It’s only in India that the massive private sector is excluded from this policy. 70 per cent of those belonging to the Scheduled Castes live in rural areas that depend on agriculture and the rural non-farm sector that has no policy reservation but where discrimination abounds. No one is opposed to the extension of reservations to the private sector, but such a policy move should be taken after consultation with the leading private sector players so that its implementation becomes a sine qua non voluntarily.
As leading political parties in India fail to provide social services to the citizens, they have to rely on coalitions to gain national office. And that leads to more populist politics. Reservations are such an entrenched part of India’s political fabric that it may be impossible to roll them back. Instead, it is smarter to focus on making these policies irrelevant over time by empowering citizens through education.
The issue of reservations has taken political hues and as such it has lost its holistic mission. Instead of harping on reservations to enable political parties to take political advantage out of it, ample opportunities should be created to tackle the twin problems of poverty and unemployment. Priority should be accorded to provide educational opportunities for all our citizens right from the primary level through to higher education. That is the end to aim for, and all possible means to achieve that end must be used.
Since the Government lacks sufficient economic resources to provide education to all categories of citizens, the participation of the private sector at all levels should be encouraged to augment the government’s own efforts. The private sector can be permitted to operate on a for-profit basis. That has worked very well in both the food and telecom sectors and could work well in the education sector too. Allowing for-profit involvement in education is likely to result in a huge amount of private sector investment in education to rapidly expand the supply of educational opportunities.
by Dr. Arvind Kumar President, India Water Foundation
