Essay on Reservation – Mere Politics or More

 

After the release of Arakshan, a Bollywood movie… the public debate on this notorious issue has again fired on every news channel and among every citizen of this country.

India is the only country in the world where reservation is provided on the grounds of caste in the educational institutes, government jobs etc.

During the framing of constitution the legendary leaders of the country supported and included the reservation criterion for the SCs and STs of the country. The policy was made an integral part of Constitution by the efforts of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, regarded as the father of the Indian constitution, who participated in Round Table Conferences and fought for the rights of depressed class.

Talking of the pre independence time:

In 1935 the British passed the Government of India Act 1935. The Act brought the term “Scheduled Castes” into use, and defined the group as including “such castes, races or tribes or parts of groups within castes, races or tribes, which appear to His Majesty in Council to correspond to the classes of persons formerly known as the ‘Depressed Classes’, as His Majesty in Council may prefer.”

Our mother India has been facing the politics from years, pre-independence was the period when the Britishers exploited the discrimination on the basis of caste under the motto “divide and rule” and coming back to the present this reservation is literally a vote bank gimmick and the  OBC reservation add pepper to it. Of the total population of the country OBC,SC and ST comprise 51%,16.2%,8.1% respectively and the reservation is 27%,15%,7.5% respectively

I, concord that some communities i.e SC and ST have been treated brutally and their rights have been curtailed for years. But is reservation a solution to it? NO!

An SC or ST if gets a seat under quota generally he/she is assaulted in class. He or she is generally not able to clear the course annual exams. So where is the upliftment of the depressed class? A child getting a deceased ladder of success and upliftment where instead of finding equality he/she finds assault.

My Suggestions

1. We need to work on grass roots. Special schools should be made  for SC and ST where best teachers should be employed to teach them who will build them upto the level of upper category students. For competitions, copious number of coaching institutes should be setup for them and that too should be cost free.

2. If this country wants equality in practical sense the practice of introducing self with our surname should be discouraged and the schools or the higher educational institute should admit the students with his name only excluding his caste.

It is well said “we can change the system by being in the system” complying this, i would like to express some measures within the reservation policies.

3. If the reservation is that mandatory then the community list should be regulated every year. The reservation policy advocates equality and provision of rights but if it is capitalized by few SC/ST communities like meena ,then again everyone would long to know what is the fate of the upliftment of the rest SC/ST communities.

4. Coming to the OBC reservation its  a masterpiece of the astute political leaders and vote bank based politics of this largest democratic country.  OBC also includes some castes that have never been assaulted and some of them are rich land owners too for e.g. yadav. From which angle or criterion they have been included in backward list. It is said that it is framed to uplift those communities who have been neglected during the SC/ST survey. My point is why the SC/ST list amended wasn’t and those neglected communities are included.

I firmly believe in equality.

I respect the cause with which this quota system was framed during the drafting of the constitution. But the way it has shaped up is definitely not fruitful to the community for which it has been made.

The politicians should think of the country and should halt their avarice of being the ruling party by adopting some vote bank based strategies and policies and start stalking some policies which can actually unite this country.

By

Name: Preeti Kumari Chaurasia

Email: 09pihu92-at-gmail.com