RESERVATION – NOW IN ‘Y’ AXIS….. BUT NOT WITHOUT QUALITY EDUCATION

The tug of war is between social justice and meritocracy. Reservation quotas, also known as affirmative action, have generated much anxiety around the world. At the same time, it has also eased social tensions and economic problems, bridging the gap between the elites and the underprivileged to some extent.

At the time of India’s independence, untouchability against Scheduled Castes was a major problem that had existed for centuries. The practice of untouchability accompanied social exclusion for the community and they continued to exist in isolation from other classes. The lawmakers while debating the Constitution wanted to correct this evil by creating a provision to address this social and economic gap. A close study of the Constitution Articles 14, 15(1), 15 (2), 15 (3), 16 (1), and 16 (2) reveals that the basic objective was ‘equality for all’ on the basis of ‘non-discrimination’. The word ‘caste’ was completely avoided from any reference, however, there was a provision in Article 16 (4) to provide for reservation in favour of backward 5 classes. So, we have come to live with this inherent contradiction in the Constitution which on one hand offers ‘equality for all’ without discrimination, while on the other, offers ‘reservation in jobs’ for the backward classes as a tool of social upliftment against centuries of oppression.

History:

In the United States till 1970s it was thought that the African-Americans were inefficient and ineffective. However, with the state's affirmative action this underprivileged section has caught up with the country's white coloured people to large extent. Although collective backwardness is still there, from Oprah Winfry to Barack Obama, individual success stories of the African-Americans are literally incalculable. The single important reason for this is opportunity of good quality education for all.

Singapore and Malaysia is a classic case as far as meritocracy versus reservation policies is concerned. Amid racial tensions and ideological conflicts Singapore was expelled from Malaysia in 1965. It was widely believed that the new born country could not survive on its own, due to scarcity of land, water, markets and natural resources. However, in less than four decades Singapore has transformed itself from a third world to a first world country with a thriving economy and an enviable quality of life for its citizens. Meritocracy has been one of the guiding principles of the city state which ensures that the best and brightest, regardless of race, religion and socio-economic background, find a level playing field to develop their fullest potential. On the other hand, Malaysia's affirmative action programmes, also known as the Bumiputera policy, that favoured its local Malay community is generally identified as the reason behind the country's failure to overcome the middle-income country trap.

In South Asia no country has probably experienced more social tensions over the issue of merit versus reservations than India. Dr Ambedkar, the key architect of reservation policy in the independent India, raised his voice in the parliament in 1927 to address the extreme economic and social backwardness of the Dalits (untouchables), originated in the Hindu social order. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, advocated affirmative action to overcome the country's social and economic disparities. In 1990 India's higher education institutions, public sector units and government bodies kept 22.5 percent of available seats reserved for scheduled caste and scheduled tribes which was raised to 49.5 percent in 2008 by including reservation for other backward category. Sensing that meritocracy was being critically threatened the Supreme Court of India stepped in and ruled that the pie can be diced no more and the remaining 50.5% will remain unreserved.

While the global experience on the merit versus quota based development discourse is at best mixed, there is a tendency for countries to move from an affirmative action to a meritocratic system with their economic and social progress.

Quality of affirmative action:

Over the years, several constitutional amendments have been made to protect the weaker and underprivileged sections but have failed to bring about the desired results. This is because very little was done for the upliftment of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes and our efforts were misdirected. Even after seven decades of Independence and we still have large pockets of communities that have very little access to ‘quality’ education and therefore have very little chance to compete with other privileged sections to improve their economic status. So increasing the quota, as is often advocated by our self centred and myopic politicians with an eye on electoral politics, is not the answer. The noble objective of ‘Reservation’ was that the government would extend special attention to education and infrastructure to enable the backward classes to bridge the knowledge gap and therefore, the social and economic gap with the rest. This unfortunately did not happen. So it is not the quantity of affirmative action but the quality that is important.

Do we need an alternate plan?

The Constitution was written to prevent discrimination of any kind with ‘equal opportunity for all’ to improve social, economic and political development. However, what we see today is a perverse interpretation of what comprises SC/ST and OBC classes. All communities are now fighting to be included into one of the above categories. Whether it is the Jats or the Patidars or the Marathas everyone is running after the reserved quota! A system, which has not given dividends, which has not reached the last person in the social ladder in seven decades, is a mirage which everyone is chasing! There has to be a course correction. There has to be an alternate plan.

The first step to remove backwardness and poverty for ALL classes is ‘education’. The next is ‘opportunity’. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) talks of an alarming learning deficit year after year. In 14-18 years age group, only 43% able to do a simple division correctly, while 47% of 14-year-olds could not read a simple sentence in English, says the ASER study. Learning deficits seen in elementary school in previous years seem to carry forward as young people go from being adolescents to young adults. When your secondary level students are not learning like the elementary students, the problem becomes bigger. It is because of two reasons—one, this 14-18 years age group are ready to enter the workforce and thus has a direct bearing on the economy; second, the families depend more on this young cohort for doing free work. What good will ‘reservation’ do to acquire this standard of education? There has to be a course correction. There has to be an alternate plan.

Quality of education and not just reservation

Today, the gap in quality of education imparted in some of the best schools and those in semi-urban and rural areas is wide and therefore this creates an ‘unequal’ opportunity rather than an ‘equal’ opportunity. This is about urban-rural divide and not a ‘class’ divide issue. The poor quality of educational infrastructure, especially in government run institutions, has been a major hindrance to the overall socio-economic development and opportunity for its people. Education is a state subject and therefore, all states must take the blame for the poor state of education in schools and colleges. Besides, poor quality of education delivered through poorly trained teachers, ‘language’ remains a major barrier.

Thanks to electoral priorities and chauvinism, all states have promoted their own languages as the medium of instruction; as a result, today’s generation struggles to communicate when they travel outside their respective states and reduces their chance for employment. Andhra Pradesh and Telengana have 400 engineering colleges, everyone abiding with our reservation policy, and churning out at last 40,000 engineers every year, but are they getting employment? ‘Quality’ and ‘inability to communicate’ is the biggest drawback for most of these engineers and this has nothing to do with their caste but is a planning error. They are not unemployed but unemployable.

Now, with this quality of education in offer, how does ‘caste’ based reservation for this quality of education help? And where is the need for it? One can understand if a student from an economically weaker section who is qualified but cannot afford the fees of say a good school or college, but this can be easily addressed by financial scholarships or loans. Reservation alone has not helped him/her in the past and cannot be expected to do any better in future too!

My plan:

No, I am not against ‘affirmative action’ and I am not an anti-reservationist by any standards but my humble submission is that our reservation is misdirected and reservation alone will not do any good to anyone. I have in one of my previous blogs http://surajitbrainwaves.blogspot.com/2015/09/reservation-for-me-too-my-answer-to.html?showComment=1443347729585#c2452465957907146685 suggested three years back that I would prefer Economically weaker section (EWS) to get the fruits of reservation and those how have had one or two pieces of the pie should not be greedy but should be prepared to share it with their poorer cousins. Towards this direction I welcome the government’s new 10% reservation for EWS but this effort is incomplete. It should be 10% across the board – 10% of General, SC, ST, Backward Classes every category, excluding none. If the caste based reservation was in X axis, let the EWS reservation be in Y axis. This will allow the poorest in every caste, creed and religion to avail the same opportunity which their creamy layer has enjoyed till date. This along with education reforms is the only way forward to strike a balance between meritocracy and social justice.