The Inevitable Dark Side of The Indian Reservation System

Everyone has a right to form an opinion and for that, one should have enough number of facts from both the sides before taking a stand. Forming an opinion without being in their shoes is sometimes so inconsiderate as it can negatively play with their mental peace. The story of Reservation is somewhat the same, generally, people do not know or want to know the other side of it that in future might become misleading too.

The Purpose behind the Reservation

The Reservation Policy was first introduced through the great efforts of Dr B. R. Ambedkar in the Constitutional Assembly and the primary purpose behind the reservation was to assimilate all the sections (Oppressed and Backward classes) of the society into the national mainstream (Classes which are quite privileged and well-off); to safeguard the rights of the socially, economically, educationally and politically backward classes; to ensure the interest of all and to represent all the section of the society. The idea was that an equal opportunity should be given to all the oppressed minorities so that they can overcome their backwardness and can stand on an equal footing as every other person in society. 

The purpose of the Reservation is simply to uplift the condition of backward classes so that they could also make their representation. To understand this purpose, let's take an instance where one person from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes gets admitted to government colleges/ universities or get a job with help of the Reservation, that person not only lifts his/her status in the society but also s/he uplift the economic and social status of other members of SCs & STs communities. Now let's look at one of my life experiences only for that matter, where I have heard, many a time, from my grandmother, saying to me that when she thinks of her olden days you cannot even imagine the situation or circumstances they have gone through and still your grandfather namely Late Mr Mohan Lal Joad while facing all these caste discriminations in the society he was able to get an education in schools and then with the help of the reservation he was able to secure a seat in college and had completed his education and later on he fought the competitive exams for Banking Services and had served as a Bank Manager in SBI for more than 50 years. He not only lifted his status in the society but also managed to get well education for all his children and other members of his community. He becomes a ray of hope for many of the depressed members of his community and tried to motivate them to get their education so that they could also uplift their status in society.

The only reason I am telling all this is to say that when I got selected for the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad with the help of Reservation, I came into contact with different people coming from different states or regions and background through which I learnt quite a lot of good qualities from them for example, society had attached demeaning traits and characteristic to our caste, like people usually think that these communities lack basic manners to behave in public or our English is not that good, usually, we are judged by others on various things like our dressing sense, cultural rituals, accent; which if are really present, I could improve them by behaving more sophisticatedly and speaking fluent English. This would help me to increase the progress of my status in society as well as of my other members from these communities.

The exchange of hate and anger vibes whilst being together, not so together, perhaps.

Some arguments I have heard against the Reservation and my counter-arguments to them

There is always a kind of inevitable dark side which the backward class people faces on a daily basis and can't help themselves to get rid of it, because of reasons I will discuss later on here. This inevitable dark side is nothing but the biased mindset of the privileged people, popularly known as general class people in India, and to be clear, I am not saying all the general class people but yes, a substantial number of them. This mindset, today, is so strong due to its old roots and could be understood as the mindset where you don't think that the backward class people can secure any seats in the government exam without the help of the Reservation. So, in order to address such mindset, I have tried to answer some question against reservation which most of these backward class people have heard. 

The very first criticism against reservation which almost every member of the reserved category has faced is that the reservation policy is affecting the general cut-off or merit list, unreserved category candidates are suffering and unable to secure their seat even their marks are higher than that of reserved category candidates. My only answer to them could be that after the honourable supreme court ruled that the reservation could not exceed 50%, anything above it would be a violation of equal access as guaranteed by the Constitution of India, assuring equality by giving rights to oppressed minorities to have a similar position and receive the same treatment, therefore, general category fighting for unreserved seats have an equal opportunity until it exceeds the 50% of the total number of seats; it hence puts a cap on the Reservation system. Therefore the general category has equal opportunity unless it exceeds 50% of the total number of seats. 

Also as it is an affirmative action by the state, besides, some of the members of the constituent assembly including S Nagappa and Jaipal Singh who proposed that the reservation shall be proportional to the population of backward classes which was very much accepted in the Constituent Assembly as well. According to the census of 2011, the population of Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe is 16.6% and 8.6% respectively in India. The sum of that is around 25% only, which is not even filling the 50% cap of the Reservation, therefore, I don't think that anywhere reservation is denying the seats which are meant for the general category candidates. Once my teacher tried to motivate us by saying that "at the end of the day you would only need one seat out of the total number of seats". Therefore, Focus of one should be on their seat and that too only one, stop moving ahead keeping the Reservation System as an excuse.

A Constituent Assembly meeting in 1950.

The second issue I have known is that after the SCs & STs Reservation, people from other communities are also demanding for the Reservation. This issue was very well addressed in the Constituent Assembly where Dr B.R. Ambedkar answered by saying that: 

"I personally was prepared to press for a larger time, because I do feel that so far as the Scheduled Castes are concerned, they are not treated on the same footing as the other minorities. For instance, so far as I know the special reservation for the Mussalmans started in the year 1892, so to say, the beginning was made then. Therefore, the Muslims had practically enjoyed these privileges for more or less sixty years. The Christians got this privilege under the Constitution of 1920 and they have enjoyed it for 28 years. The Scheduled Castes got this only in the Constitution of 1935. The commencement of this benefit of special reservation practically began in the year 1937 when the Act came into operation."

And unfortunately, earlier the Reservation for SCs & STs was given only for two years from 1937 to 1939 and afterwards, the constitution was suspended till the final draft of the Consitution was drafted in 1949; they didn't get benefit out of it in those two years as this was so minimal of a time to uplift the situation of any minority community, whereas other above-mentioned reservation worked for them as it uplifts their situation and served the purpose of reservation and thereafter these reservations were terminated after their respective mentioned periods. 

The third argument against reservation I have heard is that reservation was introduced only for the first 10 years but re-introduced decade after decade so when does it would get terminated? This issue was also addressed in the Constituent Assembly, where Dr B.R. Ambedkar addressed this by quoting that: 

"All I want to say to them in the words of Edmund Burke, is "Large Empires and small minds go ill together"."

Many members of the Constituent Assembly had accepted the proposal of extending the reservation policy and put forward the parameters for the ten years (Time-period) clause in the reservation policy and shall renew it if: 

1. there is no substantial progress
2. there is a need for more progress
3. there is no change in the situation of the depressed classes even after the ten years of reservation.

Although the parameters generally talk regarding the upliftment, to increase their representation and to assimilate all oppressed minorities of the society into the national mainstream but to secure all these one must need not only representation and upliftment in educational front, but also upliftment of the Socio-economic condition of these backward classes, which was and is still hampered by the exploitation of these backward communities and monopoly over resources; and as suggested by one of the members of the Constituent Assembly named Dr Monomohan Das, that exploitation includes all type of exploitation which might be Economical, Educational, or Political exploitation. Therefore the responsibility is on the shoulder of the general category to make these oppressed minorities feel safer and unexploited so these oppressed minorities could come out with the flying colour in all the front they could; and not only educationally which would, at last, serve the purpose of reservation but also economically and politically and this would terminate the reservation policy. 

Why the Reservation Policy has not served its purpose?

The Scheduled Caste population in India is the most vulnerable group and then the Scheduled Tribes population comes to the second position. Schedule Caste is exceptionally dependent on the labour work and particularly to the manual scavenging work for the source of income, because of the limited access to the mainstream economy or restriction in access to the fixed capital assets, low level of skill due to restrictive access to education and high unemployment. This chain of causation is due to many factors involved but mainly due to restriction and limited access these communities have in the society. 35% of SC & ST population live below the poverty line as compared to 21% of the general population in India. 

By empirical data, Status of Primary Education of Schedule Caste children, this study has found that low education in SC & ST population can be due to many factors involved, some of them are as follows:

1. Lack of educational resources
2. Somewhat privatisation of schools and colleges and due to poverty they are unable to afford the educational fees
3. Humiliation and bullying by the high caste students and teachers
4. Social exclusion faced by these community.

The first definite reason why the reservation policy has not served its purpose is that one can get reservation only after he/she passes the Higher Secondary Education and the data shows the low education in SC & ST communities make them unable to clear the Higher Secondary Education due to abovementioned factors involved and hence they are unable to get into any college or university based on reservation.

Majority of people will disagree with it as it is an unpopular opinion due to unavailability of proper facts with them and so these people try to counter-argue that it does not happen at present and now the situation has changed but my answer to them remains the same as I earlier also stated that means have been changed now but we cannot deny the fact that these communities still face social exclusion. Let's look at this example to give a glimpse of Social Exclusion which at last led to SUICIDE: Rohith Vemula's letter a powerful indictment of social prejudices.

The second reason is that the social conditioning of these community members is stuck to the point that they are meant to do servitude jobs which are more generally includes labour works and scavenging works and ignore the importance of education in their life, in uplifting their status and acknowledging the fact that they have minimal resources which can be used for educational purpose.

The majority population of these communities enrolled themselves in the Safai Karamchari Jobs which includes work to clean roads and also to clean the drainage system in our society. I can divide this population who works in these types of jobs into two types where one group is that who does not have enough qualification to do private skill-based work or to do any other work or job; and the group who think that although we have enough qualification to do any other work or job due to unemployment these people are forced to do these works and left with no other option. I have seen many unreserved categories population who have good enough qualification but due to unemployment they too are recently enrolling or filling into these types of Safai Karamchari jobs. 

In conclusion, the Reservation policy on the face of it has provided many jobs opportunity to SC & ST communities but in reality, does not uproot the social exclusion and other social stigmas attached which restraint the upliftment of these Communities in society and serves the actual purpose of the reservation policy which was meant to assimilate all the sections of the society into the national mainstream; to safeguard the rights of the socially, economically, educationally and politically backward classes; to ensure the interest of all and to represent all the section of the society. The Reservation Policy will only serve its purpose when these communities will get their representation in all the ways which are socially, economically, educationally and politically. 

I would like to end by putting a quote by Dr B.R. Ambedkar that "For a successful revolution it is not enough that there is discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of the justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights."