Say no to caste-based reservation

India is one of the largest democracies in the world. India is a country of various castes, creeds, religions, languages, etc. India is a country that believes in the concept of caste-based reservation. the system of casteism has led to various divides in society and gave rise to many clashes in society. thus the government of India has implemented reservations to uplift various communities like untouchables, Harijans, etc.. so while discussing about this topic a question arises in everyone’s mind Is this beneficial for society? does this system lead to more clashes and division in society? Or is the income-based reservation is better opinion or not? reservation should be there in education institutions or not?

History

so we can trace the genesis of caste-based reservation in India from 1882 when William hunter and Jyoti Rao phuler in 1882 came up with the idea of caste based reservation system. texts like manusmriti talk about fixing jobs by birth based on their caste. the system of reservation i.e truly prevented in today’s society was introduced in 1933 when British PM Ramsay Macdonald presented the ‘ communal award’. A proper representation was awarded to Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christian, anglo Indians Europeans. That award was opposed by many eminent personalities but mahatma Gandhi opposed this award by fasting unto death to express his randcore to this award but meanwhile this award got immense support from B.R Ambedkar. after a lot of negotiations, this was to decide that there would be a single Hindu electorate with some reservation in it. this was referred to as a Poona pact and after this Poona pact Gandhi Ji called off his fast.

Many more traces can be seen as far back in the history of pre-independence India when princely states of Travancore there was a caste-based reservation in a govt job and all other one is 1902 kholapur 50% reservation was given to backword communities in the service so the demand no only just raised before the Poona pact but has many more instances in history. In the era of post-independence initial reservations were provided only for SCs and STs. OBC was included in the reservation on the recommendation of the Mandal commission.

Note: In article 340 of the Indian constitution, the president appointed a backward class commission under B.P Mandal. The main aim of this commission was to determine the criteria of socially and educationally backward classes and to recommend the steps to be taken.

The Mandal commission concluded that there are a total of 52% of OBCs and they must be given 27 % reservation in govt jobs. mandal commission gave 11 indicators of social, educational, and economical backwardness. It has generated all Indian other backward classes (OBC) list of 3743 castes and a more underprivileged ” depressed backward classes” list of 2018 castes.

Here we came up with another study of the Indra Sawhney case of 1992, Supreme court while upholding the 27% quota for backward classes, struck down the government notification reserving 10 % of government jobs for economically backward classes among the higher caste. the supreme court upheld in the same judgment that reservations should not exceed 50 % of the Indian population.

a new concept of creamy layer came to the limelight i.e the reservation is only part of the appointment is should not excede to promotions. 103 rd constitutional amendment, 2019 has provided 10 % reservation in the government jobs and in an educational institutions for the ‘ economically backward ‘ in the unreserved category.

Necessities of reservation.

This system was introduced to fulfill all the atrocities faced by the backward class in the pre-independent era. this was made to give them equal opportunities and ensure the concept of equity. this provision ensures a proper representation of the backward classes in the state services.

general view on the policy of caste-based reservation

Are you living in caste free nation? No, it may not prevent physically but the political scenarios have taken a wide place and widened the gap between the reserved and the unreserved category. phrases like ‘ unity in diversity ‘ can no longer be applicable. this phrase was to give a new beginning to all the people who suffered in the pre-independence area, but thanks to our political leaders and parties to keep this system countinue by renewing it all the time lead to widening the divide. reservation is something that brings a division and feeling of enmity among the people of society. reservation was brought by our constitution makers to avoid the caste divide in the society but today it is the only motion and a reason that casteism is still prevalent in Indian society. It was made to ensure the concept of equity & lessen the economic divide and give proper opportunities. reservation is one of the biggest enemies of meritocracy. It has just become a medium to meet their political ends through aduce language loyalties and primordialism.

the true fact is that the policy of reservation has mainly benefitted the elite people in the backward class as the true marginalized in the backward class are still in the worst conditions. Initially, the reservation was intended for only SC / ST communists that too for a period of 10 years.(1951-1961). but it has just extended over time. even after more than 70 years of independence reservation has just increased. In the 93 rd constitutional amendment, the government of India allowed making special provisions for the advancement of any socially or economically backward class even in the admission procedure in aided or unaided private institutions. this was aggressively opposed by the students as it reduce the seats for their admission & the other loophole to this provision is that other than reserved seats OBC candidates can get admissions on the seat of the general category. this happens in almost all the competitive exams and deemed universities. students of the general category get a huge cut-off to qualify to get admission but the students of the reserved category get a comparatively very low cut-off to get admissions. so this is one of the major drawbacks to this system as this discourages an unreserved category to do hard work and lowers their confidence. (Article 15 (4) , Article 16 (2) , Article 16 (4) ) .

In the famous case of Balaji vs the state of Mysore court held that the caste of a person cannot be a criterion for their backwardness. No caste that was backward remained backward always. government should review it list after some period.

In my opinion, there is no backwardness through caste. a myth of society is that backward caste student is not able to get admission in a good institution for education and the stream of their choice but upper caste could get, but caste was never a barrier, economic factors are one of the major points that can not be ignored at any cost. so many times upper class poor are not able to get addmission in institutions due to economic backwardness.

Way forward

so here we go with another ironic fact that the term backwardness is not even defined not even anywhere in the constitution how there can be a reservation for an entity that is not even defined?

In my view, the reservation must be taken as affirmative action to ensure proper equity in society for all privileged people nevertheless of caste. our government for the past year is turning this socio-economic issue into just a game of dirty vote bank politics for their pride and power.

A fact to give look upon this policy just ensure education at the higher institution but did not ensure the promotion of education at a primary level. Many of the children in the country lack schooling at the primary level. many instances can be found that teachers in government schools did not provide a proper education module rather than giving the student some task at school to do. so here the first question to this is to upgrade the system of education. government schools must ensure quality education. according to me if you are developing the human resource of a nation is the only this to reduce the socio-economic disparities in society. Reservation is truly a curse in society that create a divide and the cause of wars within the society. Eventually, the government should find the list by filtering truly economically deprived people and providing them justice. a short conclusion to this is that there must be a strong will to crucially provide proper management between justice for backward, equity for forwards, and efficiency for the entire system.