"Of course,
forward castes aren't happy with the situation, in
spite of having a larger representation than their
proportion in the population. The problem is that
the total number of seats available is so low that most
people are left out. But this is true of every
single category, and not just FCs. Many of us,
belonging to the forward castes, have a lot of friends
who are "left out", and feel outraged that its due to
reservations ( though many FC candidates score lower
than even the reserved-category cut-off marks, and
still blame reservations!). But the question to ask is:
What about the lakhs of people from the MBCs and BCs
who get left out ? There are thousands of farmers'
daughters and weavers' sons who either are unable to
get to high school, or even if they do, do not get
adequate support from home and are unable to afford
coaching classes. We seldom know them and do not
encounter them in our day-to-day lives. Yet they are
real students, who are not only unable to get into
these seats, but do not even get the opportunity to
compete on an even footing. Are we pre-supposing that
these students are all devoid of merit? According to
the math above, for every Forward Class friend of ours,
there are atleast 5 Backward Class/Most Backward Class
students who were denied the opportunity to get a seat.
Who speaks for them ?.."
Imagine that the government came up
with a proposal to build a new world-class technology
institution to provide quality education to all
students. Imagine, too, that a debate rages on the
viability of building such an institution - in terms of the costs involved, student
quality, desired outcomes etc. Now, imagine that such a
debate takes place with little reference to IITs or the
role they have played in technical education.
Outrageous, you would think ? Yet, something similar is
happening in the reservation debate, both within and
outside AID (Association for India's Development). The
record of states which have implemented Other Backward
Classes reservations already is seldom brought up.
The case of Tamilnadu
States like Tamilndu, Kerala, Karnataka
and Andhra Pradesh have already implemented reservation
for OBCs in educational institutions. I will restrict
my references to Tamilnadu alone, since I do not know
about the situation in other states. In Tamilnadu, the
total reservation is 69%, the split up for which is
given below (ref www.tn.gov.in/policynotes/bc_mbc_welfare.htm
) for convenience
Tamil Nadu Population (Projected)
|
Category
|
Population
(2001)
|
% of Total
Population
|
% of
Reservation
|
|
Backward Classes
|
2,87,93,980
|
46.14%
|
30%
|
|
Most Backward Classes
|
1,08,77,310
|
17.43%
|
20%
|
|
Denotified Communities
|
21,46,755
|
3.44%
|
|
Scheduled Classes
|
1,18,57,504
|
19.00%
|
18%
|
|
Scheduled Tribes
|
6,51,321
|
1.04%
|
1%
|
|
Others
|
80,78,809
|
12.95%
|
-
|
|
Total
|
6,24,05,679
|
100%
|
69%
|
Backward Clasess (BCs) and Most
Backward Classes (MBCs) of Tamilnadu are together
equivalent to the "Other Backward Castes", as they are
referred to in the rest of the country. The most
obvious observation from the table above is that the
percentage of reservations is only equal to or lower
than the percentage of the group in the overall
population. So the reservation system is only trying to
bring about proportional representation in educational
institutions. It does not result in a
reverse-discrimination (which would mean BCs get more
than their proportional share in order to right
historical wrongs), as many people claim. FCs, who form
the "others", still get the bulk of the 31% open-quota
seats even though their population percentage is only
13%.
Overall, the experience with
reservation has been very positive, and that is why
there is wide-spread support for it in the state. The
government health-care system in Tamilnadu is better
than most other states, and one reason has been the
quality doctors that the system produces, a factor
attributed to reservations. Many of them also opt to
serve in rural areas. Not surprisingly, the Tamil Nadu
chapter of the Indian Medical Association supports
quotas for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Now it is not difficult to see why the
anti-reservation polemic does not refer to states like
Tamilnadu with an OBC reservation record. It is because
there are no instances of bridges cracking due to
faulty design and patients dying due to incompetent
doctors. These are often cited as the potential dangers
due to reservations, either directly or more subtly as
"quality will deteriorate". I am not saying that there
are no problems with govt doctors or hospitals in TN,
but these problems are present in other states too, and
the overall quality is still better in Tamilnadu.
Who gets in and who does'nt ?
Of course, forward castes aren't
happy with the situation, in spite of having a
larger representation than their proportion in the
population. The problem is that the total number
of seats available is so low that most people are
left out. But this is true of every single
category, and not just FCs. Many of us, belonging
to the forward castes, have a lot of friends who are
"left out", and feel outraged that its due to
reservations ( though many FC candidates score lower
than even the reserved-category cut-off marks, and
still blame reservations!).
But the question to ask is: What
about the lakhs of people from the MBCs and BCs who
get left out ? There are thousands of farmers'
daughters and weavers' sons who either are unable to
get to high school, or even if they do, do not get
adequate support from home and are unable to afford
coaching classes. We seldom know them and do not
encounter them in our day-to-day lives. Yet they are
real students, who are not only unable to get into
these seats, but do not even get the opportunity to
compete on an even footing. Are we pre-supposing that
these students are all devoid of merit? According to
the math above, for every FC friend of ours, there
are atleast 5 BC/MBC students who were denied the
opportunity to get a seat. Who speaks for them ?
Economic criterion
Such examples immediately bring up the
point that reservations have'nt resulted in what they
intended to do. Again, experience in Tamilnadu points
otherwise. There are any number of good students from
backward castes who get into Anna university every year
due to reservations, and excel in their careers.
In addition, there is already a
provision for excluding the creamy layer of each caste
from reservation (the list of conditions that exclude a
person from enjoying OBC reservation benefits, is at
http://ncbc.nic.in/html/creamylayer.htm)
so that only the needy get the benefits.
What about purely economic criteria,
leaving out caste ? While that might work in an ideal
caste-less society, we have to acknowledge that caste
is still a huge factor governing societal relationships
today. Those who think that "caste is not a factor in
urban India anymore", need only look at the matrimonial
columns of any popular newspaper.
The supreme court has also ruled that
reservations based on purely economic conditions is
unconstitutional. Besides, economic conditions can
easily change over time, whereas caste does not offer
any mobility. That is why, inspite of reservations, it
takes a lot of time for real empowerment of the lower
castes. And just because a caste is "considered" low,
it wont become an OBC. It has to satisfy several
conditions to be included as socio-economically"
backward , for example that the proportion of graduates
is 20% lower than the state or local average (complete
list of guidelines at http://ncbcnic.in/html/guideline.html).
The outrageous fact is that there still are clearly
identifiable castes and sub-castes which fall in such
categories, exposing the deep-rooted nature of our
caste system.
Conclusion
As AIDers, we have a conscious
responsibility to not only appreciate the problems of
those from our castes and backgrounds, but also the
millons of Indians who are generally unable to take
part at all levels in the government
education/adiminstration system. Let us go beyond our
individual class/caste biases and take a position on
the issue.
