Source:

https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/op-ed-snap-a-solution-in-search-of-a-problem-on-10-reservations/

 

Model Answer:

• India’s reservation system is clearly in disarray. However, it is unlikely that the recently passed Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill, 2019, creating a 10% quota for the economically weaker sections (EWS), will serve as anything more than a band-aid.
• This bill entitles 10% direct reservation in government jobs and for admission in higher educational institutions to economically weaker sections among all castes and communities including Christians and Muslims who are not eligible under the existing quotas.

However, actual implementation of the EWS quota could be challenging for several reasons:

• Difficulties in obtaining caste certificate to non SC/ST/OBC people as only few of them are holding the same. Without caste certificate there would be difficulties in recognizing the person (beneficiary) in order to provide 10% quota.
• OBC reservation is limited to only 27% of seats whereas the OBC population is at least 40% of the population, possibly more. This move is certain to result in greater OBC reservation particularly if a constitutional amendment to increased the proportion of reserved seats from 50% to 60% is already being adopted.
• The greatest cost of this amendment lies in the foregone opportunity to develop an enhanced and more effective reservation policy so that we can genuinely see an end to the entrenched inequalities in Indian society in the medium term.
• General category jobs are open to everyone, including Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and OBC individuals. Thus, by removing 10% jobs from the “open” category, it reduces the opportunities for currently reserved groups. Hence, this is by no means a win-win situation.
• This quota includes everyone whose annual income is below Rs. 8 lakh. As per ‘India Human Development Survey’ (IHDS), the annual household incomes of 98% of households are less than Rs. 8 lakh.
• However, even we apply all the other criteria for exclusion (e.g. amount of land owned and size of home), this would still cover over 95% of the household. In practical sense, providing 10% reservation to 95% population will be almost difficulties.

 

Way Forward:

• One strategy may be to try and spread the benefits of reservations as widely as possible within the existing framework and ensure that individuals use their reserved category status only once in their lifetime.
• This would require that anyone using reservations to obtain a benefit such as college admission must register his/her Aadhaar number and she would be ineligible to use reservations for another benefit (e.g. a job) in the future.
• This would require no changes to the basic framework but spread the benefits more broadly within the reserved category allowing a larger number of families to seek upward mobility.
• A second strategy might be to recognise that future economic growth in India is going to come from the private sector and entrepreneurship.
• In order to ensure that all Indians, regardless of caste, class and religion, are able to partake in economic growth, we must focus on basic skills. We have focused on admission to prestigious colleges and government jobs, but little attention is directed to social inequality in the quality of elementary schooling.
• The IHDS shows that among children aged 8-11, 68% of the forward caste children can read at Class 1 level while the proportion is far lower for OBCs (56%), SCs (45%) and STs (40%).
• This suggests that we need to focus on reducing inequalities where they first emerge, within primary schools.

Conclusion:

• Given the deep inequalities prevalent in access to education and jobs based on caste and socio-economic status, affirmative action (or positive discrimination) makes a lot of sense.
• However, the system that was put in place during the early years of the Republic deserves serious re-evaluation in an era when technology has paved the way for deploying a better equipped arsenal.