On Caste Based Reservation

Reservations
Are we on the right path?
Were our founding fathers right in starting reservations?
What should be done?

This is a controversy that has generated quite some heat whenever it has been raised. In the old Mandal days, a heated agitation by the entire student community went unheeded by the political masters of the day. There is a growing feeling that the issue will keep coming up again and again until a viable and just solution acceptable to all is found. I have a suggestion for just such a solution that seems just and viable. But first, let me discuss some of the issues involved. Let us take up these issues one by one.

Is reservation really required?
The original argument runs like this:
· SC/ST have faced centuries of oppression. You need to give them special treatment to make up for all those lost centuries?
· The OBCs did not face oppression in the same way as the SC/ST but they have suffered from systematic disadvantage in accessing higher education and middle class jobs. To quote: Number of graduates is 253 out of every 1000 upper caste Hindus while it is only 86 per 1000 OBCs (Source: National Sample Survey).
The presupposition is that this is not a result of any natural difference in IQ or in a desire to pursue education but reflects only unequal opportunities.

Is caste oppression and untouchability a case for reservation?
Oppression in the past generations cannot be an argument for reservations for the new generations. Our founding fathers built our constitution with a promise of equality of opportunity irrespective of caste, creed, gender and religion. They made a small mistake. They put in reservation. They allowed this aberration (yes, that’s what they thought it is) for only 10 years and for only 10%. They did not realize that our power hungry politicians would use vote bank politics to divide and rule. The aberration has been extended beyond the original period many fold over and has been extended to OBCs and other categories. You may recall that the country’s early leaders had mandated that caste should not be a parameter recoded in the ten-yearly census, which is why no one has a good estimate of the OBCs in the country.

Is backwardness a case for intervention?
Any community that has been left behind in social, economic, and educational opportunities needs help from the more progressive communities. It is the duty of every citizen, as well as a responsibility of the Government, to narrow down these differences between communities.

However, this does not entitle anyone to snatch other people’s rights. Reservation amounts to snatching the legitimate right of the meritorious and can never be condoned.

Are Brahmins the Dalits of today?
It is true. We hear stories – all the workers at Sulabh Shonchalayas in Delhi are Brahmins. Almost 75% of the coolies in Delhi Railway Station are Brahmins. Further away, 75% of the rickshaw pullers in Varanasi are Brahmins. It is very difficult to identify which castes are really the oppressed. The reservation issue has only fractured the Hindu society. The politicians are the only gainers in this exercise.

What about economic backwardness?
Economic Backwardness is the easiest to identify. However, there is an inherent flaw – low income/wealth is the result of economic decisions taken by the family and does not represent social oppression. However, continued deprivation for over several generations should be a criterion for any systematic help from the society.

What about reservations for sportsmen, war widows etc.?
We already have some reservations for sportsmen, war widows, army men’s families, freedom fighter’s families and others. There has been no open public controversy on this issue only because the number of seats reserved for them in most institutes is miniscule. Our feedback at college level is that many of these special category students are not able to integrate into the mainstream and have low self-esteem that results in problems in making friends, problems in relating to their peer group and in adjusting with the environment. They are often ostracized by their peers and can be exposed to sometimes very cruel jokes. The percentage of dropouts is also usually high. Exactly the same kind of feedback is available for SC/ST and for OBC students. It is apparent that reservations as such do not achieve the intended purpose.

What about reservation for the rich?
Many professional colleges already have some seats marked as Management Quota, Donation seats, NRI seats etc. These students have their own set of problems. At many places these students demand and get special privileges – right to misbehave with teachers and other students, right to bunk classes, and a right to flaunt their expensive toys (cars, mobiles and so on). These institutes usually do it because they are cash starved but they know they cannot build a good institute on donations – you need merit.

What about mediocrity?
An educational institute is only as good as its students and its teachers. We cannot have any world-class colleges, schools, and institutes unless we get the best people. Reservations in education and jobs cut both ways – the level of both teachers and the students both goes down. Are we going to be content with making mediocre doctors, engineers and managers? We need to build world-class institutes to be able to get ahead in this world.

Will increasing seats in IIT solve anything?
The present debate in the country is revolving around the government’s offer to reserve seats in IITs and IIMs by creating additional seats in equal number – an offer that has not been accepted by the student community. The issue here should be whether we can still project IITs and IIMs as world-class institutes with this change. If we can increase the number of seats so dramatically and still keep up the quality, why hasn’t the Government done it already, over a period of time, instead of doing it now suddenly as a knee jerk reaction? The number of seats in each institute should be determined by the demand, the infrastructure available, the availability of faculty of requisite stature, and availability of a good pool of students. It has nothing to do with reservation! If the politicians want that students with lower merit should be admitted to these institutes, it might be a better idea to open separate IITs and IIMs for them, instead of allowing the standards in existing institutes to suffer.

Is reservation the only form of intervention?
The above arguments suggest that there is a need for a social intervention or “affirmative action”. It only suggests that people and government machinery should take some action and policy interventions may be required. These arguments do not suggest reservation per se.

Up to what level should reservations go? School? College? Professional Institutes? Jobs? Promotions? Senior positions? CEOs?
We have seen that reservations are against the principle of equality of opportunity, reduce the quality of our institutions, create problems for the people intended to be helped and promote mediocrity. It is obvious that reservations cannot be advocated at any level, even at junior school level. It may be more practical to open separate special institutes for the disadvantaged.

Are there alternative models of intervention?
Reservation is not the only way – there are a number of things that the society and the Government can do to mitigate the hardship faced by the backward. Some of these are:
· To encourage people from backward communities to make it to top institutes like IITs, IIMs, and Medical Colleges, Government should give special subsidy to the coaching institute whose students from the challenged communities get selected in the competitive examinations. And this subsidy should be substantial enough to make these coaching classes go out and seek out the students from these communities, run special classes for them and get them selected (someone in my office was suggesting 1.5 to two times the fees the coaching institutes charge normally).
· There should be scholarships for the students from the challenged communities. These scholarships should be attractive enough to minimize dropouts. Such scholarship can also take the form of free tuition, free books, access to libraries and special coaching classes besides free meals and other cost of living expenses. These incentives should start from junior school itself for the meritorious.
· We already have separate welfare societies for different religious communities. These societies often run schools, colleges, institutes, and even universities where they give preference to people from their own communities. Thus you have Christian Colleges, Muslim Colleges, Sikh Colleges, Jain institutes etc. at so many places in the country. All these religious communities have effectively ensured that they are not educationally disadvantaged. I suggest the same concept can be promoted with the backward communities. With some nudging from the Government, the many Yadava societies (presently already operating marriage halls at many locations) can come forward to open schools and colleges.

What should we do?
The present agitation has an ugly aspect – reports suggest that the agitating students are ostracizing the reserved category students in their classes as a part of their current agitation. This is doing more harm than good. They are playing right into the hands of the politicians. They need to be more understanding towards the less privileged – as a first step I suggest opening dialogue with all the reserved category students and convincing them about the benefits of a no-reservation policy.