Reservation is a difficult and politically sensitive subject. Therefore, we, dear readers, are trying to explain this on a best effort basis.
As you are aware, Indian society is divided into four varnas – Brahmin, Vaishya, Kshatriya, Shudra.
The basis for this delineation is the profession of the person. Those who were into education and performing religious rituals were the Brahmins. Those who were into trade, farming, and other commerce related professions were Vaishyas. Warriors were Kshatriyas. Those who provided sanitation and cleaning services were the Shudras.
With each varna was caste – again, based on the profession being practised. Bajaj in North India were the cloth merchants. Mochis were blacksmiths, Kumhars were potters, and so on.
Over time, these professions led to a difference in earning and social standing both.
The Brahmins, while not being too rich, enjoyed high social standing on account of their education and their necessity before performing any major religious ritual (pooja or yagya).
The shudras found themselves at the bottom of the hierarchy – both socially and financially.
As more time passed, this social hierarchy also started to determine the opportunities available to a person. Therefore, shudra children could not enroll in schools and get education. Likewise, Brahmin children found it hard to take up professions like trading, because trading guilds were well structured and controlled access to opportunities.
Over a long period of time, this led to a society that provided unequal opportunities for all its members.
So much so, that they actually started being called ‘backward classes’ or ‘untouchable’. There was lack of economic opportunity and social respect.
This led to a feeling of dissent among those at the bottom of the heirarchy.
In the last three centuries, reformers like Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule worked to improve access to education. Social and economic reform was necessary to ensure that this inequity ends.
The Start of Reservations
Shri Bhimrao Ambedkar was a lawyer. He had faced caste-based discrimination in his own life and was also a champion crusader for the rights of the Dalits (Dalit literally means downtrodden. The term has been in use for certain communities for some time. Gandhiji tried to use the term Harijan (people of God) but it has not stuck).
Shri Ambedkar was part of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution and also India’s first law minister.
When the Constituent Assembly was debating reservations for the underrepresented sections, he said:
“……..Supposing, for instance, we were to concede in full the demand of those communities who have not been so far employed in the public services to the fullest extent, what would really happen is, we shall be completely destroying the first proposition upon which we are all agreed, namely, that there shall be an equality of opportunity.
Let me give an illustration. Supposing, for instance, reservations were made for a community or a collection of communities, the total of which came to something like 70 per cent of the total posts under the State and only 30 per cent are retained as the unreserved. Could anybody say that the reservation of 30 per cent as open to general competition would be satisfactory from the point of view of giving effect to the first principle, namely, that there shall be equality of opportunity?
It cannot be in my judgment therefore the seats to be reserved, if the reservation is to be consistent with sub-clause (1) of Article 10, must be confined to a minority of seats……..”
Over a period of time, both the number of communities covered, and the quantum of reservation has seen an upward trend.
Never, in the history of Independent India, have reservations been scaled back or removed.
Benefits of reservations
Most higher education campuses today have dedicated student bodies of SC/ST/ OBC students. They have access to exclusive facilities, and they have a network that helps them find jobs. This, as can be expected, leads to social bonding and economic progress.
Many students from these communities really do come from underprivileged backgrounds. At colleges, they find their voice. Many of them leave the village for the first time when they join a college or a reserved category government job. A first-generation beneficiary typically uplifts the entire family. There are several case studies of professionals and leaders who have been able to uplift families or work for development in their villages after getting the benefits of reservation.
Problems with reservation
The first, of course, is the issue with creamy layer. This means people who have benefited from reservations and now enjoy no disadvantage (examples would be IAS officers, MLAs, etc.). Their children, presumably, do not need reservations. But because reservations are based on caste/tribe and not access to opportunity (other than Economically Weaker Sections – a reservation introduced for the first time in 2019), their children will continue to benefit from reservations even though they are essentially privileged.
The creamy layer:
- Keeps meritorious students away from opportunities that they truly deserve, because they get those opportunities on account of reservations.
- Keeps opportunities away from children of other reserved families. Because their children have got better education, they are more likely to qualify for higher education than the child from the village who has not had access to, for example, JEE coaching.
The second problem is the effect of reservations in higher education.
This is the JEE cut off for 2023:
What this table shows us is that a general category student in the 85th percentile (meaning, someone who has done better than 85% of ALL students who wrote the JEE) will not get a chance to write the Mains, but a reserved category student who is only at the 37th percentile, will move to Mains and very likely will make it to the IIT.
At that IIT, they will have to pass the same exams, do the same assignments, as the student at the 90th percentile.
That the scholastic aptitude of these two students is different can be safely assumed.
A system like this closes opportunities for those who are academically eligible, just because they were born in a non-reserved category home.
On the other hand, it also creates stress for those who have to suddenly be on par with those who are very different from them.
The third issue is growing social polarisation. Before the 1990 Mandal Commission, at least urban India had reached a place where people’s caste was irrelevant in school and college. Today, there is a clear divide between reservation and non-reservation students on many campuses. Reservations have single-handedly led to more, not less, polarisation among students – both the reserved and the general category students.
So, the consensus is…
There is no consensus. A tool, by itself, is not good or bad. Affirmative action (reservations) is, largely a positive direction. If some things have not worked well in its implementation, it is time to understand why. The overall goal of an equitable society is important. Reservation is one of the tools.