I am writing the extracts here for future reference, for they are quite engrossing and may lead to a better clarity in my thought process.
On Reservation with Ananya Sri and the afterthoughts
Reservation to the SC, ST and OBC as provided for by the constitution of India is an issue which needs a matured relook and solution. Is the sacrifice of merit justified? Or, to be precise, does providing reservation to over 50 % of the population of the country, majority of which is under-developed, help in imparting social justice or strengthen the caste and class divide in our society? Is the provision for reservation a political weapon, or an essential component of the Indian democracy?
The fact cannot be denied that majority of the members of the reserved category have been exploited for ages by the dominant upper castes.
Also, the Indian government has been told by the Directive principles of the state policy to create social and political justice in the society.
Few intellectuals advocate providing reservation to the under privileged on economic criterion. Practically, this is not possible, for there are 500 million + people in India who do not form a part of the economic workforce, and stats can be manipulated by the remaining 600 million.
I as a member of the unreserved category, have seen my merit being under mined by the policy of reservation. If I look at the bigger picture, I see some sense in the policy of reservation, for we need to reduce in equalities. But then, it has been 60 years since independence, and yet, the situation has not improved much. Has the pain of losing on merit by a general candidate gone waste when he sees the benefits of reservation being exploited by generations of many of the so called reserved classes?
Or, if I as a candidate of the reserved class use the benefit of reservation, why does the state not make it my responsibility to seek social upliftment of my community, why does my child need the same qouta which got me a job, why?
Who gains here, and what?
Both the general and the deprived masses are on the losing side, yet, hold each other responsible for the outcomes of the reservation policy.
I am not sure, how are we going to eliminate the evil of caste from our society until such policies hold ground.
3 comments:
The solution is simple.
Try this..
Imagine urself to be a teacher of a class full of students having different intellect, grades ,etc...
if u got to chose btwn passing the weakest kid or pushing the score of the highest ranked kid...what would u chose??
you have got me thinking.. it will take more thought, but prima facie this is what i understand:
1. no kind of reservation can help untill the caste system is rooted out of our minds. that is still a far cry in our society. untill then, people will try to 'purge' their sins by offering reservation.the real motive will be lost till then.
2. there are different satges: first we said " we have made you suffer, we will help you ".. then we said, "we will help you only till you can get started on your own." which is what the recent supreme court judgement means...
3. i am not sure if reservation serves its purpose. it does bring all the sections into a common stream, but then marks them out as different colored fluids in the same flow. if this is not caste system, what else is?? and i think the major reason for that is that we have absolutely no initiative from the government on this part. all it does is ban caste system and provide reservation, that too only in letter not in spirit.. if it can raze shanties and small houses for flyovers, i do not understand why it cannot truly eliminate caste system so that we can really see the results of reservation. these are the rare cases when i wish we had a chinese style gov here, all they would do is tell each well to do family that thay had to mingle and help an not-well to do family..just like they made it compulsory to have a kid from each family into the army..
Hmm..mind stimulating topic. Well..the current reservation system is NOT serving the purpose it was intended for..atleast from what many of us have seen and experienced.
We as part of the city bound middle class strata have no idea about difficult conditions for these people in small towns and villages where they are actually discriminated against.
But what we have seen is that the segment that gains advantage with these reservations are the economically well to do sections residing in the city.
The section which is actually deprived and needs assistance..needs to get it at an initial stage..primary and high school.
They can be given financial help at this stage. But after that..merit for anyone should not be compromised. Again..assistance can be given for the preparation needed for graduation and PG level competitive exams..but not after that.
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