Caste Based Reservation SystemThe Caste based reservation system is a inconclusive debate with no clear cut lines. There is little evidence that it has made a difference to the poor over the forty years of practicing it, but the system cannot be scrapped or changed easily as the social disadvantages remain a contentious issue. There are no authoritative answers to this one.

The Indian Caste based reservation system and the arguments related to it have been the subject of electoral promises, books, national debates, forum discussions and bar fights. Since the past (or finding who is to blame) is the primary focus, these exercises hardly result in anything productive. So, instead of talking about the religious past of the caste system, what could have been done by our past leaders, taking a personal or emotional view of this system, etc let us take an objective look at:

What the Reservation system hopes to achieve Equality of opportunity & autonomy/social safety net Vs Equality of outcome debate What percentage of poor people (urban vs rural) are present in India and the number of

disadvantaged people in this category Number of disadvantaged people who have access to education/jobs How many people benefit from reservation every year Distribution of the reservation system - what percent of disadvantaged actually benefit

from this system. How it has affected the demographics/income and society over the last few decades How poverty rates have changed over the years Has reservation changed anything in terms of caste distribution of the poor Has reservation system improved quality & educational performance How is the reservation system performing The future

Reservation in India

Reservation system and its history:The idea of caste based reservation system was envisioned by William Hunter and Jyotirao Phule in various forms in 1882 and implemented by Chatrapati Sahuji in 1901. The term was changed to "Depressed Class" in 1932 by Ambedkar and later to "Scheduled Caste/Tribes" during the framing of the constitution in 1950. The idea was that a vast majority of the poor were from a very small caste group and they needed a social net so that they can be accommodated into society as full fledged members. It is important to note that this part of the reservation was for electoral rights first (to guarantee political representation - Poona Act ‘35) and a education/job rights issue second. Also note that education was made free in these early attempts so that poverty does not hinder their education by these early efforts. If not for Dr.Ambedkar's efforts, even this would not have come through during Independence. Ambedkar remains an icon for minority causes even today and is revered because of this. Enough of history. Fast forward to today.

Objectives of Reservation:

Uplift lower strata of society Ensure proper political representation of minority groups Ensure that minorities are not discriminated in job selections and promotion

The caste based reservation system is built around these three objectives.

Equality of Opportunity & autonomy/social safety net Vs Equality of Outcome:In an Indian caste context, what this ideally means in theory is:

Equality of opportunity : If a member of lower strata applies to a job and has the right qualifications and is a better performer compared to peers, he should get the job i.e., their caste/economic status should not decide which jobs they apply/get selected to.

Equality of autonomy : If a member of lower strata wants to become a rocket scientist, and has the intelligence and is willing to work towards this goal, there should not be any barriers to pursuing this goal i.e., they should not be at a disadvantage when choosing their course of life because they were born poor/belong to a particular caste.

Social safety net : When certain members of society did not have these privileges earlier and the government wants to help them, certain non contributory (free) measures are taken to help them i.e., members of a disadvantaged group are given free financial incentives so that they are not trapped in the present position/do not fall into a life of crime and poverty. In short, a mid life boost to success.

Since the disadvantaged groups of India have been discriminated against for centuries, and are still not protected despite the numerous laws(40% of crimes are committed against this 22% of the population), before equality of opportunity and autonomy, a social safety net is needed - ie a boost or ladder is required so that the more advanced forms of equality can be introduced and society can be balanced.

Contrary to popular opinion, a social safety net is the most effective way to raise the standards of disadvantaged groups - this has been proven using data from various countries. It is fair discrimination. The key point here in the practice of this is - there are no people from disadvantaged groups in the upper echelons of society, and as long as they do not have a percentage equal to their share in the population in these elite groups - administrative, education, political etc, these measures are necessary as they do not have the economic or educational resources to get to the top. In short -

"Without access to education, the poor will always be poor"

These things sound great in theory. Opponents of caste based reservation have a valid opposing idea, which practically means:

Equality of outcome : By helping people even though they are not have equal credentials/qualifications (reservation gives leeway of 10 - 40% reduction in various parameters in India) it is not equality of opportunity but an unfair playing field - there is no incentive for better performers and it becomes reverse discrimination.

The catch with a social net is that it has to be done short term and reduced over a period of time so that the other forms - opportunity and autonomy can take root and grow. This never happened in India. Besides, reservation is not justified in niche fields and higher education when a graduation is already a requirement - ie how many time should a person get these life boosts when they already have the same qualification and reached a level playing field? At this point, a loan to fund education makes more sense than a free pass irrespective of performance. In short -

"Reservation system based on a social net contradicts itself"“Government should not play Robin Hood”

Demographics related to Reservation:The statistics for India related to reservation are:Population of India, split up by caste:

Reservation percentage, split by caste:

Population Split by Religion (religious minorities are given quota in certain states):

Distribution of SC population, by state:

Highest incidence is in Punjab - 28.9%.

Distribution of ST population, by state:

The highest incidence is in Lakshadweep islands  - 94.5%.

Percentages are almost the same when it comes to reserved percentage vs population statistics.

Number of people with educational qualifications, by social strata:

Graduates are 3.6% of the general population (including SC and ST), whereas it is 1.4% and 0.9% in SC and ST categories.

We are getting more kids admitted into schools (85% is really good) , but only 60% make it to 5th grade and 52% to high school. Only 7% of those admitted into the school system finally pass. Final graduation rates from colleges are close to 3.6%, as mentioned in the previous chart. This is not because the kids are not able to perform academically, but because of simple reasons like no teachers, financial dependency, etc. The relative percentage of kids making it to secondary school and college has not improved over the past 30 years.

Ie, admissions into primary education is increasing, but drop out rates and final graduate output is almost the same. The number of graduates has increased, but not as a relative percentage - it merely represents the increase in population.

Number of people who benefit from reservation every year:Education : India has about 436 universities and 25938 colleges with about 2-3 million graduates(if non technical diploma, etc are included) a year as of 2010. Educational institutions are required to surrender 50% of their seats to the government and very few minority run institutions are exempt from this. From that, 49% of the graduates benefit from reservation, so about 25% or 0.75 million people are direct beneficiaries of reservation in education. This percentage however varies between states and type of study (medical vs engineering vs arts vs law etc) and type of institution (deemed, private, minority run or trust run, government run colleges have 49.5% of their seats under the quota).

Jobs :

The GoI (state,central,panchayats,etc in the same order of number of employees) employs 17.8 million people or 3.6% of the total workforce of India (487 million workers) and 8% of them retire annually (because a vast majority of them were hired during the ‘82-’93), so that is 1.4 million vacancies. Because of this, 0.7 million people get jobs under reservation quota annually. There is no data related to economic standing of students, job seekers and their future income, but a fair argument can be made by comparing wealth distribution over the past 40 years.

Distribution of Wealth and poverty rate:Poor, in an Indian context implies absolute poverty - can't buy the next meal poor or the person is unable to make Rs.20 (36 cents) a day. By international standards, it is $1.25 a day and 32% of Indian population is poor by that definition.

Over the past 40 years, the reservation system has hardly changed anything in terms of wealth distribution (one of its objectives) - the upper 20% of the society controls 40% of the wealth, while the lower 20% is left with 7%.

This is the distribution of poor people by caste, accounting for split between rural and urban population and normalising:

It is to be noted that upper castes account for 36% of poor people and backward classes account for 16%. This 36% of poor people do not benefit from any of these “Welfare Schemes” when it is based on caste.

The official numbers are always disputed by other agencies which say that poverty is reducing by 8-12% annually like clockwork and Indian government is cooking the numbers related to poverty. This deserves a mention here - according to them,

(Economist)

(Center for global development)

Performance of the Reservation system when compared to its stated objectives:Though “lower strata” term is relative, the reservation system has not changed anything drastically when comparison of poverty rates and income of the bottom 20% of society is relatively the same compared over the last 40 years. This is more evident in rural areas. There are a significant portion of upper caste (6% of national population) who are poor and do not benefit from reservation. Cost of education has increased 12.5X over the previous decade - even the cheapest institutions have five percent inflation a year. Overall, the Caste based reservation system has achieved very little for the rural poor and has mostly fallen flat on its face in most of the metrics. It has failed because (unfair debate left out, as what's fair to me may not be fair to someone else) :

It has not improved dropout rates It has not improved income share of poor people It has not performed in terms of quality of education (India ranks 72nd in the world by

PISA scale - pls comment if you want more details) It is not inclusive of all the poor sections of society (poor upper castes are left out) It is based on fixed percentages creating selection bubbles ie, there is no incentive to

perform for those with reservation and there is no motivation for those without reservation as competition is higher

There is no data to support reservation based on caste has met any of its objectives after 4 decades of practicing it

Future:The caste based reservation system is a part of the Indian Constitution and unlikely to change. The window of opportunity to make effective long lasting changes to any Indian system is 10-15 years, and the political landscape is too busy on other things rather than trying to wrap their wits around this. It has affected who we are as a society and it will continue to affect future generations to come. The changes to this system can only be made by a bold government prepared to take action with a long term vision and goals, and that is not going to happen anytime soon.

“There is no accountability in Indian politics”

Reservation of any kind will not work 100% efficiently under the current scenario. I am all for competing with a peer group which is fiercely competitive and leaving a portion of opportunities for poor people without resources, but in the current conditions it is unfair to people competing in general quota and poor people -  the data proves it. While reservation is necessary for social good, in its current form it is not helping the majority of the targeted audience and unfair to the others. Without bringing poor kids who are out on the streets into a educational setting and retaining them, reservation hardly justifies the negatives it has. It is archaic and should be dispensed with in favor of a income based reservation system, where quota percentages are determined based on poverty levels, say every 5 years. Long term efforts (spread over 20-30 years or a generation to take root) should be to phase out reservation entirely in certain segments like higher education as equality of opportunity is provided from primary education onwards. Same can be argued for the job sector. Fine. After writing the income based reservation part, I got thinking that this measure deserves to be scrutinised as well. Is it truly a good way to go about welfare schemes? So I proceeded with some calculations to see if this argument has any reasoning behind it. Implementing a income based reservation system is tougher than most people think:

Income based reservation, below poverty line with 49.5% quota:If a reservation by income scheme is implemented retaining the 50.5:49.5 ratio of open vs reserved quota, giving 49.5% for poor people below the poverty line, then all castes are represented across the board:

(this is just to contrast caste split between the existing and proposed system - ST category is actually under represented in the existing system)This system would ensure that people who deserve the social net benefit from it while relatively rich people compete among themselves as they have access to facilities etc. Seems fair to everyone right? poor people get their quota irrespective of caste. Smiles all around.

But there is a practical problem why this cannot be implemented - only 3% of poor people make it to the stage where they can avail reservation - meaning even with 100% enrollment rate in primary school, 47% of the 49.5% poor do not make it to high school. There are no poor people below poverty line reaching high school to give away reserved seats to (30% of engineering seats reserved for SC/ST students lapse in certain states already, without this system). So, this scheme cannot be implemented without 47% of seats lapsing to general students anyway.

Alternate Demand:Income Based reservation, with relative income as a parameter between students:Implementing this system is dumb too. For instance, what really is the handicap that a student with parents of income say Rs.400K a year have compared to a student with parents having income of a 5 million rupees? Maybe in ‘70s, the rich parents hired a super cool tutor, but in a digital world, the advantages are close to none - a broadband connection makes these students even on access to resources and study materials as textbooks, tutorials etc are available for free. This system, if implemented, would be a farce on so many levels.

To conclude, we are back to where we were 60 years ago - there is a very poor, highly discriminated section of society that needs help and we have no well defined educational policy in practice on a national level that helps them.

So, what’s the final solution?I do not have a clear answer to this nor the expertise, but my take would be:education reform spread over at least 2 decades is necessary, as there is no silver bullet to this problem. The only way to help them is to improve the education system so that more students are retained, and provide students with access to internet so that there is equality in access to information.

Education:A income based reservation system  with reduced quota (30% among students below poverty line) along with increased retention of students in terms of access to education should be the priority short term. Long term, mainstream primary education sector should be focussed on socialistic public education (public schools mostly suck today), compulsory and partially free (retaining mix of private and public schools with elements of Germany(Gymnasium system), China and UK education systems in the same order) and higher studies should be capitalistic (elements from USA, China and UK education systems in the same order). Private schools for the gifted and differently abled should be allowed - with regulations. India can take a lot of inspiration from China in this - these problems were faced by China 3 decades ago. China opened up its doors to foreign universities and collaborations, which we have not done yet. Chinese schools are ranked as the best right from primary education in terms of science, math

and reading skills. Instead of trying to write history books with an agenda, both state and central governments should get started on these short term and long term changes on a war footing.Jobs:While quota in job selection can be justified to a certain extent, promotions should be left out of it. Quota in promotions is a rude joke when so many quantified evaluation models are available to ensure fair assessments during appraisals.

Let us hope that future measures are taken in such a way that benefits really trickle down to those who need it instead of playing the caste card in every election. Reservation debate has implications in multiple fields ranging from social justice and economics to future standards of living. While this short answer is by no means complete in scope, it should provide pointers to form an informed opinion on this controversial policy of our country.

Trivia: Constitution of India guarantees free education for every child till the age of 14. This was the only directive that Dr. Ambedkar set a timeline to - the deadline for implementing this was Jan 26, 1960. Today, the average family spends 20% of its income on primary education. Was this part of the constitution a forgotten promise?

Originally Answered: Reservation in India:   What is your opinion about the caste-based reservation system in India?Reservation/Affirmative Action is a complex issue and there is no black & white conclusion about it. My positions on this have changed in the past. I will lay out my thought process.

The most important part about Reservation is the motivation behind it. Its effectiveness and results are entirely dependent on that motivation.

A few overlapping motivations that different people have:

1. Spread the seeds of education. Growth of a nation can be faster if a variety of people from all communities are bootstrapped with the power of education. I always picture a dark hall that has to be lit with candles. Ideally, I would want to spread it out so that the room fills with light. In the same way, a dark nation had to be lit with providing opportunities for people from various communities This was the primary motive of our founding fathers and a very good motive in that. I have seen my classmates change their whole families by being the first to be educated. Why don't Indian poor people start a revolution?

2. Manage the scarce education resources. Our best colleges are way fewer than best students. How do we best allocate the resources? In fact, if there was enough supply of good colleges at affordable prices then this whole question of reservation is moot.

3. Redress the imbalance. This is a slightly more complicated motive. It is a fact that many communities were discriminated in the long past [some still are] and that produces a disadvantage. But, the issue is that our advantages/disadvantages stem from a variety of factors - from mother's health to the location of the person. Is a Dalit son of a doctor in Delhi necessarily more disadvantaged than the Brahmin son of a postman in a remote

Bihar village? In some ways yes, in other ways not. Besides the social discrimination, there are thousands of ways in which a student can be disadvantaged. If all humans are born blank slates to be educated, then why are some students excelling while others are dropping out? [It should be noted that in 1947, most of India was uneducated and poor - in almost all castes. My maternal grandfather was one such uneducated refugee whose father went to Burma, but then return due to the calamities of WW2. Thus, the so called multiple millennia of advantage had all gone by the end of British rule]

4. Score the votebanks: In the past couple of decades, this has become a major motive for some political parties. This is bringing a range of communities such as Gujjars and Meenas into conflict. Far from the dreams of Ambedkar, reservation is becoming a ploy to score votes in some regions. Recently Haryana burnt for reservation of JATS in OBC quota.

5. Provide vindictive "justice": This is the worst of 5 motives. Here the motive is not about development or even to redress imbalance. Some people want to keep it for plain vindictiveness as seen from some of the comment threads in the same page. The sense of revenge and rage is more dominant in some people than the sense that poor should grow up. "Your ancestors have done evil to mine. So, I will do to your descendants" or "Some of your community does harm to some of my community. So, I will punish you". The problem with vindictiveness is it is both unfair, never works and can go endless. I cannot go and attack a UK citizen just because 100 years ago their country ruled us. Japan and Germany were ransacked by the US in WW2 but are good friends. At some point, this has motive has to be discarded.

Different people have different motivations. For me, if the motivations of reservations are 1 & 2, then it is good. If it is 3, 4 and 5, then it is bad. If we really care about 1 & 2, here is what could be done:

1. Work on reducing scarcity: 20 years ago, a cousin of mine attempted suicide and had to be in the hospital for a long time. Although he was a national level ranker in CBSE exams he was not able to get his dream Medical seat when the Mandal commission came out. It was different times, when not getting a seat means your whole family is doomed. These days, thankfully it is not that high stakes. Work on building a lot of quality institutions and work on delivering innovative ways to deliver scalable education that the second point becomes moot.

2. Look to spread the seeds even further: To get the point 1 further, we need to make sure the recipients are ideally those whose family never had the education. That is the best value for money as the whole family can latch on to his/her success. From a pure economics standpoint, providing an IIT seat to an intelligent tribal student from rural Nagaland whose family never had college education will provide more value for money than giving to a Delhi based Dalit coming from a family of doctors or IAS officers. Both are socially discriminated in some sense, but the former bears it more than the latter.

Of course, if our motive is really point 1 & we want to get a lot of poor, discriminated dalit, tribal and other backward community students up to the top, we could well tweak the current

system & make sure the benefit mainly goes to the first college going student of the discriminated family. However, if the motivations are not point 1, then real problem occurs and that is the current state we are in.  TL;DR Caste-system existed for many ages, and it's a reality. Even today it   hasn't faded away- it affects the subconscious at the least by registering the caste of the other via surname. Strong networks within   castes ensured status quo- rich upper castes & poor lower castes.   However with enlightenment and discovering illogical nature of it, upliftment was sought and efforts made to wash away these existing   barriers. The problem is beginning of upliftment in the form of reservations has to coincide with this wave of acceptance, which  creates  an apparent paradox (Section 2) leading to protests. So the  policy is  needed, but rather than attaining it's aim it is creating  further barriers with the disillusioned upper-classes; as infrastructure  growth can't catch up with the reserved seats, and it's almost now a  zero-sum  game. Moreover with 40% of the truly poor backward class  population entitled to 50% of seats (from Amar Prabhu's  data) there is bound to be beneficiaries from the already rich. This   further widens the caste-barrier. Thus if the policy can make way at   different & more basic levels (educating the lower-castes enough to   vote out gimmick-based governments) along with restrictions on   beneficiaries (Section 4) it can attain desired aims else the method is  bound to fail, and as criticized by many just serve as vote-banks.

Long Answer: "British colonized India for 100+ years, plundered the country's wealth creating unequal opportunities on a global scale. We as next generation Indians deserve reservation in education/jobs in UK"I wonder how many upper-caste Indians would say 'No' to this. It's a completely separate story this won't ever be implemented, so no one would take this seriously. Moreover no British would agree to it especially considering bleak jobs scenario today. So essentially being an upper-caste Indian & bluntly stating "reservations aren't good","vote-bank agenda" is narrow-sighted and selfish view of things- as I may just consent to the previous scenario which is analogical. Moreover caste-based reservations isn't something new India has tried globally. There've been color-based reservations everywhere including US (inciting the wrath of Ku-Klax-Klan), South African cricket team. Color is similar to the caste in the sense it comes with birth; also there are rich blacks, poor whites just like rich dalits, poor Brahmins. It's not similar in the sense color is a tangible thing and not a social construct, while it's the reverse for caste. Thus whatever stance I take here, I must explain it in detail:

1. Aim of reservation/ Why it's needed: To create a level-playing ground as success may often reflect how hard you worked, but not what opportunities you had (or hadn't). For instance, Dhirubhai Ambani bootstrapped, but Mukesh & Anil had a fortune to inherit- on which they capitalized nicely & became richer. Contacts plays a very essential role today in many things- getting a job, starting a business. These contacts often come from family. So reverse-tune 100 years, and you've a society where members of the same caste interacted with each other, married amongst themselves- essentially stratification into close-knit communities on the basis of caste. Since there were much more upper-caste people who were rich, by their networks and contacts they could help the other upper-caste people to become rich as well, while lower caste person finding no contacts has to strive lots more and still

often remain there itself (upper-castes had oppressive policies to keep their rise in check). Thus it became a vicious cycle which won't ever end. (Check Makarand Sahasrabuddhe's answer Is discrimination by caste and skin colour common in India?) Reasoning it was unfair to never give them an opportunity just based on family they are born into, reservations were envisaged.

2. Why Protests? Upper-caste Indians have a valid point of this system being a reverse-discrimination or anti-meritocracy. Argument: the society isn't as caste-conscious as it used to be 50 years ago. That's the problem: only when the awakening comes regarding them not being 'naturally inferior' will we start thinking of their upliftment. So the upper caste ones question if they aren't discriminatory, why do they need reservations? (see 1) That's the tragic coincidence- efforts were never made before this. The dilemma- the beginning of providing opportunities has to coincide with the awakening; but this makes the logic of reservation questionable. Moreover, people are glad to be reaping benefits of their ancestor's success (by inheriting wealth, contacts) but are not willing to pay for their ancestor's mistakes. Due to these contradictions, hell breaks loose & we've nationwide protests.

3. So is the current policy good? Going from Section I; noticing contradictions in Section 2 it can be concluded, YES it's needed. So my argument: reservations are needed, and not later or in any other (more or less discriminatory) society but today. Thus the benefits of reservation:- i)   Initiating the lower-castes into the society, into positions of opportunity ii)  Giving them the much-coveted contacts iii) Now they can speak, interact with higher-caste people (bridging the gap) iv) Education. The more people from these castes are educated, the better decisions they can take in the next elections & vote out such govts.

Now let's analyze the problems it's creating. i)  Zero-sum Game: The Govt did well to analyze the need of reservations. However the policy gave nothing in return to the upper-castes which it was displacing. Or, the infrastructure and development couldn't catch up with the implementation of the policy. Thus with similar infrastructure & reserved seats, every beneficiary comes at the cost of someone from 'general caste' who worked harder(not taking into account benefits he had) but couldn't make it. He now must try somewhere else. ii) Anger in upper-castes: Apart from just that, it began to widen the gap. If lower castes were earlier perceived as ones who would defile your surroundings, now they maybe just perceived as ones who would steal what you deserved. iii) Beneficiaries: Naturally the beneficiaries would be ones who are better-off in these castes, since they can afford more resources & the policy makes no distinction as to who amongst these castes can avail. Moreover even every upper-caste (middle-class) Indian wants more, considers themselves poor nowadays. So seeing rich benefactors from reserved classes of what they always wanted as a gift from their parents, makes them angry further. iv) Quantity of reservations: 50%. Too much. Especially when the infrastructure isn't able to cope up. What people strive to attain, blocking half-of-the seats is bound to cause indignation and furore. iv) Various levels: IITs, IIMs, IAS, jobs, promotions. There is no limit as which of these one can

use reservation on. Ideally if one gets admitted into IIT, he has a level-playing ground (with doles from the govt on stuff he can't afford) with top students of the country. But if he can reuse the policy to get admission into IIM or IAS from here, it is bound to infuriate many hardworking IITians who couldn't make it because half-of-the seats were blocked again. Moreover multiple generations of the benefactor can keep availing any combination of these.

Thus the policy aims to do good, but is no good. So rather than directly stating it a "political agenda", I would in the long run conclude this as the result of failed governance. Their narrow-minded policies without analyzing the entire repercussions. After all, it's governance only which ensures Britain would never have the proposed policy- it doesn't serve their political agenda.

4. Proposed Alternatives:So seeing that an immediate need is there for upliftment, but the current policies are being counterproductive, some proposed changes:-1) Proportion of reservations directly proportional to infrastructure growth 2) Reservations in primary & secondary, rather than tertiary education. (reservations in private schools simply shows Govt's admittance of lack of quality in Govt schools- such a Govt must be thrown out) Investing in primary & secondary education sector, overhauling it, reserving seats3) [going with the aims, exempting those who are already initiated, have contacts]     Conditions on beneficiaries such as- a) Limit on availing the policy- set a limit of 2 levels for 10 years, then 1       (includes further generations as well) b) Income limits- those who didn't avail, but were somehow well-off don't have to take it just for the sake of it by virtue of "belonging to the lower caste"c) Implementation period limit- If this ends in a restricted time frame, say 10 years, upper-caste Indians would have reasons to believe the aim is upliftment

Our founding fathers did not think of reservation as a way to 'spread education'

Ambedkar spent a long time trying to figure out the best way to overcome centuries of social discrimination. He determined that until there was equitable representation from such people in all positions of influence, including policy making, government service and enterprise, any efforts made by others on their behalf would either be half-hearted or executed with a 'benefactor' mentality, like you or I would do for a maid's kid. The idea behind reservations was therefore empowerment, not charity. There are other programs that focus on education and health. Reservation isn't one of them. This is why its effects start from higher education, which Ambedkar felt was crucial to enable representation in positions of influence.

The rationale here is that without centuries of discrimination, it would be reasonable to expect that such equitable representation would have resulted naturally. In the absence of any beliefs of 'natural superiority' of any one group, such an assumption seems valid. So reservation effectively creates a 'protected class' that competes within itself until it reaches a stage where it can compete with the rest of the country. Meanwhile, their numbers grow in positions of influence (not just government, but doctors, lawyers, professors, executives, etc.) so any class prejudices start going away.

Why should there be reservation when entrances are merit-based?

What is merit and who determines merit?

Assume the panel that determines the IIT entrance criteria changes to one that has better rural representation (over time, as more people from such a background become top educators). Assume the panel decides that the candidates who can make the best use of a program at IIT are those who demonstrate the most aptitude (rather than a specific syllabus), show the most drive in an interview, and have past achievements that show that they have a tendency to give back to their communities rather than simply make profits. Obviously the profile of the people who make it through to an IIT will change with this. You no longer need to be within commuting distance of a coaching center to improve your chances. The balance starts shifting from kids in top urban schools with generations of engineers, to the kids who grow up in communities that lack basic necessities. But the criteria is still 'merit' based.

MIT has the highest ranked and most selective engineering programs in the US. They give no extra preference to someone who scores 800 in Math in the SAT versus someone who scores 750. Beyond 750, what differentiates you is how you've taken initiative. Among people who show similar initiative, the most diverse set of students is selected - not the 'highest scoring'. Can you argue with this definition of merit?

Obviously the 'merit-based' results change based on who is setting the 'merit' criteria. Its even arguable that the imagined criteria described above is a better use of India's top engineering programs. But one cannot change the mindset of whoever is setting the criteria today. This is why protections are necessary until there is adequate representation.

Isn't reservation unfair for us unreserved groups?

This question doesn't have any basis. If the protected group was given more seats than their relative population, then that could be unfair. But that's not the case. If protected group status was given to some random group with no basis for such status, then that would be unfair. But we are talking about a group that was suppressed for thousands of years. If cutoffs indicate that the protected group has become competitive to the extent that some of them have started entering open competition while the rest are still using up the entire reserved quota, then that could be unfair. But clearly things are far from it.

Let's do a little thought experiment.

There are 100 seats for a particular university. A candidate 'X' is not eligible for reservations, which means he can only compete for 50 of those seats. He scores 99.2/100, ranking him 51st among FC and 61st overall. 'X' is angry. He believes reservations are the reason he did not get a seat he deserves, especially when 40 candidates 'worse' than him make it through. Some of those candidates scored only 85/100 - where is the justice in that?

Now let's assume there was never a caste system ever in India. Each group, including SC/ST, OBC and FC, then have similar average wealth, similar wealth gaps within them, similar

distribution in professions, similar percentages of kids in top schools, and similar percentages of intelligent and hard-working candidates. Each of these groups have hundreds of millions of people in them, so this conclusion is statistically valid. This assumes there is no 'inherent' superiority in FC humans (I believe this, but if you don't, you have a different problem to deal with).

In this assumed scenario, 'X' may still rank 51st among FC. But the other groups, which together make up much more than 50% of the population, will have at least 50 candidates who score higher than 99.2/100. His new overall rank is now over 100, which means he won't get a seat. It doesn't matter if he is rich or poor, urban or rural - the result remains the same.

The conclusion of this, is that anyone who thinks he or she is missing out on a seat today because of reservations, would not have obtained that seat if the caste system had never existed either. He or she is not being punished. You're just not able to take full advantage of a legacy resulting from thousands of years of segregation.

Is that so unfair?

There is plenty of current research that demonstrates that:

1. Having a low caste surname yields a 33% lower probability of getting a callback for a job with identical resumes, even in urban India

2. Urban job interviewers admit to prejudice based on 'family background', the new euphemism for caste.

3. The largest caste-related survey in India conducted 2 years ago finds that 25% of those surveyed (including 50% of brahmins) admit to still practicing untouchability, provoking the question of how many do yet don't admit it.

4. Documentaries within the last 5 years show children from scheduled castes having to walk several km longer because they cannot walk through certain villages; the girls are asked to sweep and clean toilets at the schools where they study; the teacher seats them in such a way that he does not need to touch them... the list goes on.

The fact is that discrimination is alive and well, and that it is affecting protected groups  in some way or another. Some of these are blatant, others are subtle. Some are admitted, others are hidden. But more importantly, such justification is not even necessary. No one outside these protected groups (including me) has any right to try and encroach on a protection that is designed to eliminate such discrimination. Especially when the protection is limited to seats that correspond to their population. When that changes, feel free to chime in; I will too.

What about rich SC/ST folks?

Yes, this is unfortunate. But this is also a tough problem to solve.

On the one hand, admitting a well-off SC/ST who meets minimum qualifications is better for that

group than a situation where there are certain seats that cannot be filled because no one from that group is found to be qualified. Why? Because the premise of reservations is representation, not 'helping hand for the needy'. A well-off SC/ST is still representation.

On the other hand, if there are qualified SC/ST from poorer regions and the well-off SC/ST comes from an educated family, then perhaps the rural SC/ST candidate is a better representation than the urban SC/ST candidate.

Regardless, the solution is something that does NOT end up reducing the number of SC/ST who make it through, even if it means letting in people perceived as advantaged. This isn't about the emotions of FC candidates or how rich and lazy their neighbor is. The seats at stake aren't theirs to begin with, so the comparison is moot.

'Spread the seeds of education' is not the basis for our founding fathers propounding reservations at all. I wish he had researched this. It has that 'I am benevolent'/ 'I help my maid'/ 'I help the needy' ring to it that reservations were designed to avoid. Reservations are about equating influence; and about eradicating prejudices by bringing about equitable distribution in high enough places. This point unfortunately gives the impression of trying to divert attention to a benevolent cause as an alternative to reservations, when its not an alternative at all. Its commendable and should be done, but its not an alternative.

1. 'Manage the scarce education resources' again has little to do with reservation. Same as [1] above. Let's do it, but its not an alternative.

2. 'Redress the imbalance' is the point that comes closest to the intent behind reservations, though I would call it 'Social balance of power'. What he does with this point is curious; it is systematically broken down and trivialized. First, he uses improbable examples - such as the son of a dalit doctor - as a common comparison (22.5% of India is SC/ST, 1.5% of doctors are SC/ST). Next, he trivializes centuries of untouchability by implying that it is roughly equally probable for someone to end up with the same misfortune by chance - really? His own answer (on the cascading effect of small unidirectional differences) that is linked to is excellent, but seems to be proving the opposite of what is being stated. Next, he uses an example to arrive at a generalization that everyone was uneducated at independence. Another gross inaccuracy. A cursory look at research will show that even at the end of 19th century, Brahmins who made up 5% of the Indian population also made up 25% of the English literate population and 90%+ of all accountants in India.

I'm not saying any of this is on purpose. I'm just surprised by the uncharacteristically high reliance on stray anecdotes to arrive at a conclusion, especially from someone known for extensive research on the most obscure topics. It strengthens one's belief in the power of in-group bias.

Yes, if a group of people found opportunities to work in Burma after the British invasion

of the region in the 19th century, and their descendants were then violently driven out by the indigenous population in the 1930's, then that is a terrible misfortune, and I greatly admire those who picked themselves up from that point and moved on. But it does nothing to detract from the need to fix the deliberate segregation of hundreds of millions for thousands of years.

3. 'Score the votebanks'. Agreed. Its the land of monkey cage politics. Shit happens all the time. This is never a valid justification and does not even need acknowledgement.

4. 'Provide Vindictive Justice' is more of a 'why not' rather than a 'why'. There is no 'punishment' that results from 15% of seats being reserved for a historically segregated group that constitutes 15% of the population, so this serves to obfuscate the issue with the imaginary. I do not doubt that there are people who come and claim this because they are angry. But you and I know this doesn't 'take away' anything to be called a punishment. Why indulge the ignorant?

Aren't reservations a lazy way out of grassroots efforts?

No, they serve as a parallel accelerator with a different short term goal, but a common long term goal. Without it, even successful grassroots efforts will hit a 'glass ceiling' that will slow down progress, especially given evidence that discrimination is still active in some form or another.

Let's ask ourselves the reverse question instead. Isn't the opposition to reservation a lazy way out of doing one's part in grassroots efforts, especially knowing that accelerating such efforts will also accelerate the natural death of reservations?

Do I think the reservation system is 'working'?

In terms of increasing representation in government, industry and the professional services, yes, it is working. In terms of upward mobility, again, there is statistical research in both the US and India that shows it is. Indian reservations are such a unique form of affirmative action that it is of great interest to US research groups wondering what to take away for their own widening gaps. There's a ton of research out there, and almost all international research on Indian reservations show that it is, indeed, working.

Its not going as fast as it should be. There's more that needs to be done at the grassroots level. I'll let you in on a secret. The fastest way to rid India of reservations is to do your part in funding and driving the spread of education in the most isolated and segregated parts of the country. They will advance to the point where there will be so much competition within that 15%, that they will beg for their reservation to be eradicated.

But don't propose primary education as an 'alternative' and try to appear altruistic. Its not, and you wont.

Is the reservation system perfect the way it is?

No. I see 2 problems:

1. Over-representation:

The original recommendation for SC/ST reservations was that even SC/ST candidates qualifying through open competition would count towards the reserved seats. The recommendation for OBC reservations alone was to have OBC candidates who are admitted through open competition not to count towards reserved seats, because the reservation of 27% was below the population representation of OBC.

However, implementation is inconsistent with this, with some states and institutions not counting open competition SC/ST against reserved seats. Implementation also varies by state. In some rare cases, this has led to unusually poor representation of unreserved groups, such as in the Tamil Nadu Medical entrance exams.

Over-representation of any caste-based or caste-income-based group is OK as long as it is competitive, but its not healthy while the group also receives protection. If the state is concerned that the protected group may be receiving fewer seats than it would if it were unreserved, it would even be OK, for instance, to make the determination of whether to treat the group as protected or not after the scores are obtained, based on how many members would obtain seats in either scenario.

Disproportionate suppression of any one group never was, nor should be, a goal of reservations.

2. Lack of Frequent Measurement and Re-calibration:

I also think there is a major measurement problem. This is causing several different groups to be lumped into a large umbrella, with little oversight over progress of individual subgroups. I'm worried some large groups may be getting hardly any representation because of others that already had a distinct political/location/economic advantage.

I think we absolutely need a baseline census, followed by frequent 'sampler' surveys to assess progress and keep re-calibrating reservations. On the flip side, this also opens it up for political abuse. Its a tough call, but that's India for you.

The History of Reservations:CasteBased  Reservation in India Started in 2nd Century BC. In Manusmriti -the law  book of Brahmins all the laws were based on Caste and no Merit was ever  considered. It divided people into High and Low Castes on the basis of  their birth and not on the basis of Merit. Wealth, Political power,  Spiritual leadership, Education, Ownership of Land, Trade and all  lucrative aspects were reserved purely to the higher castes.

The Concept:The  correct term used for reservation in the Indian Constitution is  Representation. Those who

have benefited from reservation and are  enjoying the fruits of reservation must first of all understand the true  meaning of reservation. It is not given to anyone in his individual  capacity. It is given to individual as a representative of the  underprivileged community. Thebeneficiaries of reservations are in turn  expected to help their communities to come up. Reservation is a  democratic principle to provide representation to the castes hitherto  remained unrepresented in the governance of the country. Justice Reddy  observed "While we agree that competitive skill is relevant in higher  posts, we do not think it is necessary to be apologetic about  reservation in posts, higher or lower, so long as the minimum  requirements are satisfied."On the other hand, we have to be apologetic  that there still exists a need for reservation. "Article16 (4) is not a  poverty alleviation programme. Its singularaim is to redistribute power  to those who have been kept out of the state apparatus so as to end  their educational, social and economic backwardness and this class is  not less than 77 1/2 % of thepopulation of the country.-Justice  P.B.Sawant.

The Intellectual Class:Dr  Ambedkar Said "In every country the intellectual class is the most  influential class. Themasses are largely imitative and follow the  intellectual class.There is no exaggeration in saying that the entire  destination of the country depends upon its intellectual class. If the  intellectual class is honest and independent, it can be trusted to take  the initiative and give a proper lead when a crisis arises. Similarly an  intellectual class may be a band of high-souled persons, ready to help,  ready to emancipate erring humanity or it may easily be a gang of  crooks or a body of advocates of narrow clique from which it draws its  support. Is the Intellectual Class doing this Work? After thorough  analysis, it is observed that this intellectual class does not take  active part in any such activity of change of system. Not only that, it  is also observed that this intellectual class looks at the society, to  which it belongs with contempt and keep themselves away from it. Dr.  Ambedkar had experienced this, at the fag end of his life and therefore  on 18 March 1956 at Ramlila Ground, Agra he said with a heavy heart  that, "The educated people have  betrayed me. I was thinking that after education they will serve their  society. But I find that a crowd of clerks had gathered around me, who  are engaged in filling their belly". This heart burning is a proof that  educated and intellectual class is alienated from the society and is  going away from its brotherhood. Because of this reason, atrocities and  discrimination have increased on the people living in villages. The  class, who was expected to lead the society, became the most obedient  servant of the government, and the movement was left for half hearted  and immature people.What the Intellectual Class Should Do?The  intellectual class should do that work, which was expected, from their  creators. The system of inequality is continuing in the country. The  representatives created by virtue of reservation must organize  themselves for bringing about a change of the system. They must organize  the people and create an honest and influential movement.The Educated Elite:In  his book "Annihilation of Castes" he has stated that "our educated  elite always fly high away from the society. The more he is high, the  more he would keep-off the society. He hides his caste and is eager to  associate with the oppressors. He forgets his place in his stage and  position in the society. Caste is by birth and remains to the end of  life. This is forgotten by our people. Our association and contacts with  high caste people is seen in the behaviors of our people. The  Oppressors humiliate this class of educated people".Dr Ambedkar Observed  "Nobody can dare

to exploit and dominate any society which has 10  doctors, 20 Engineers and 30 Lawyers". Today there are thousands and  lakhs of Doctors, Engineers and Lawyers among the SC's and ST's in our  society. But question arises as to have the exploitation and harassment  stopped? The answer is a big No, because those benefitted from  reservation are not aware of their duty towards society.

The Present Scenario:

The  reservation policy has no doubt played an important role in the  advancement of sc/st's. But after more than 60 years of Independence and  after becoming self sufficient are the beneficiaries of reservation  aware enough or are they enlightened towards their duty towards society  or community to which they belong ? Are they paying back to society????  If we look at majority of central government, state government or public  sector employees who have taken the benefits of reservation the answer  is a big "No" Most of the beneficiaries are busy in their daily routine  work i.e.office and home. They don't even have time to think about their  community as such. Their children are well off, some taking education  in best engineering colleges even in payment seats, best management  colleges, some working abroad in MNC's. With whatever within their  reach, they should have paid back to the world they belong to.  Collectively, top dalit bureaucrats, central govt, public sector  officers possess more than the required strength to build up their  community. Yet nothing is emerging from them. Dr. Ambedkar expected much  succour and help to come from those who used benefits like reservation  in acquiring positions in the higher echelons of the power structure.  That did not happen at all. Instead large-scale alienation is taking  place and they are slowly drifting away from their community to form  their own elite class. They have forgotten that they owe their  prosperity to the community in which they were born.Some of them are  so afraid of their caste identity that they don'teven want to discuss  about SC/ST's, about their current status etc.I remember an incident  when I along with some of my colleagues went to a senior officer who was  a SC to distribute some handbills for a meeting of sc/st officers. He  was sitting in his cabin with some other officers; he immediately came  out of his cabin, took the handbill from us, crushed it in his pocket  and hurriedly said 'ok ok I will come'.The Fear Factor is such that even  our persons at top most positions in central govt/psu's try to show  that they are neutral towards all, that they don't favour only sc/st's,  they rely more on upper castes bosses and subordinates. If such is the  level of fear factor among those drawing salary of around 1 Lakhs + p.m  one can imagine theplight of untouchables in villages who have to face  discrimination every day. Still there are poor and self respecting  sc-st's who never compromise when it comes to following the teachings of  DrAmbedkar while some elite beneficiaries of reservation can be found  supporting the oppressors in the anti-reservation debate just to  maintain good relations with them.There is a class of babu mentality  officers who get kicked on their butt daily by their masters. This class  of babus is more concerned about their promotions and postings rather  than the upliftment of their downtrodden brethren through social  transformatory movement.This is the class of dalits which has not  bothered to read about the struggle of Mahatma Phule and Babasaheb  Ambedkar which brought the mout of the hell of untouchability in  Hinduism. This class of dalits has no identity of their own, they have  no self respect and therefore they are treated like menial servants by  their masters.Then  there are many elite beneficiaries of reservation who don'teven have  time to pay tributes to their great leader on his jayanti or  Mahaparinirvan day. Last year on 14th April I asked one of

my busy  colleague from our community that why he was not present at the statue  of Dr Ambedkar today morning, he asked' what was there? Any meeting?  Then he said "today as it was a holiday I got up very late. The same  fellow on vishwakarma puja day gets up early in the morning, thoroughly  washes his car, and performs all rituals andpuja's throughout the year.  There are the other ones from our elite class who keep on saying that  reservation is a baisakhi, we should stop taking it, now the scenario is  changed, our country is progressing like anything etc etc. The irony is  that the same people talk about harassment and atrocities on sc/st's  after being denied promotions or right postings/transfers.Some take the  plea that there are so many groups and leaders both in politics and  associations, they are confused and say that it is better to keep off  from this whole thing. The least can be expectedis a sms from them on a  TV channel in favour of some discussion on reservation or atrocities on  dalits. But then they should have time to watch it sacrificing their  favourite soaps.Of  course not all are betrayers. There is a dedicated and committed  workforce also who are relentlessly working towards fulfillment of Dr.  Ambedkars dream. There are workers who work day and night just to take  the mission of babasaheb forward. My salute to them. But they are very  few.The Political Reservation:While  the political reservation has given us 131 MPs and 1050+ MLA's, most of  them echo their master's voice i.e they dare not disobey the party high  command to which they belong.Fresh Lease of Life:The  Oppressors are surely getting a fresh lease of life to continue their  hegemony, manipulate and dominate as more and more psu's being  privatized either through disinvestment or back door privatization  through joint venture route investing huge money from parent companies  to subsidiary companieswith no reservation policy.The Khairlanji Incident:The  failure of SC/ST individuals in the Khairlanji case indicate either the  dereliction of duty, lack of true empowerment, awareness, absence of  feeling of paying back to society of SC/St officers. The report on the  khairlanji atrocity is a ringing bell to learn that our own Dalit  officers and Dalit Govt Servants are party to such atrocities. Even  though it is an Atrocity, they are just numb of the pain and sufferings  of their poor dalit brothers and sisters.Role of Welfare Associations & Organisations :Today  there are more than 10 Lakh sc-st welfare Associations and  organisations. Most of these organizations are driven by the individual  personalities of the people controlling them rather than the rich and  powerful ideological force of thePhule Ambedkarite thoughts supplemented  by revolutionary teachingsof Lord Buddha. In such personality driven  organizations the personal aspirations and ambitions of the leaders gain  paramount importance over the larger societal interests. The leaders of  such organizations try to optimize their short term personal gains at  the cost of long term societal interests. These numbers of small  organizations compete with each other for the limited resources in terms  of manpower, money, infrastructure, intellectual resources etcthus  cannibalizing each other. The result of this cannibalization is that the  output in terms of larger social or political objectives has been very  very sub optimal. This has prevented in achieving the economies of scope  and economies of scale in terms of input we put in and output we Page on Get a zeal to do something for the society they land up dealing with the  peripherals i.e. treating the symptoms without diagnosing the disease.  Unless and until we strike at the root cause of the problems, all our  actions will be mere exercises in futility.Treatment of symptoms will  give temporary relief to be soon inflicted by other viruses.

If these  numerous so-called all India organizations allegedly representing the  reserved category employees are left unchecked they will, under the garb  of protecting the interest of the employees,continue dealing with  peripheral issues. Where as, majority of us due to apathy, merely become  spectators. Not only this, we allow them to represent us without our  concurrence. This drama takes the nature of the famous epic story of a  nude emperor. Every spectator knowingly hailed the imaginary fabrics of  the Every spectator knowingly hailed the imaginary fabrics of the  emperor.It took the innocence of a child to call the bluff and point  out at the dangling genetalia. However, in most of the cases, we don't  even seem to have that innocence to call a spade a spade.While majority  of them have either lost their voice or it has been chocked by the  managements. The complete absence of fear of action and prosecution, the  divisions among the associations which gives the managements further  advantage of denying the legitimate rights has left the implementation  of reservation policy half hearted. Also in the absence of feeling of  paying back to the society extending the policy to other castes and  categories will be of no use. The only result it will produce is the  bunch of high class babus engaged in filling their belly. The  constitutional authorities like National Commission for Scheduled Castes  have bulk of complaints pendingwhich compelled even the chairman of  NCSC to write to the PM about his helplessness and Non Cooperation of  the concerned ministries in redressing the grievances.The community as  such has to face and fight with double discrimination and subjugation -  one from the identified oppressors and another from the representatives  of own community who through their indifference and callousness leave  the innocent and ignorant masses at the mercy of Oppressors.Holding  seminars and symposiums on reservation policy will yield no results if  those responsible for implementation and those representing the masses  are not honest andsincere.The  ethos of privatisation and the excuse of global  competition,superimposed on the traditional caste prejudice, will never  allow reservations to happen, any more.Dr  Ambedkar had said during a debate in parliament on the questionof  efficiency of governance by the system of reservation that "A  representative government is better than an efficient government"He  added this on the upper castes: "It is your claim to equality which  hurts them. They want to maintain the status quo. If you continue to  accept your lowly status ungrudgingly, continue to remain dirty, filthy,  backward, ignorant, poor and disunited, they will allow you to live in  peace. The moment you start to raise your level, the conflict  starts."Those arguing against reservation must understand that 50 years  ofaffirmative action is nothing as compared to 3000 years of  subjugation. Those crying foul over Merit know very well that there is  not enough fruit in the garden hence those who are already in want to  keep out those who are already out.Those responsible for implementing  the policy of Reservation must undoubtedly understand that "Reservation  is neither a policy matter, a political gimmick nor a matter of Charity.  It is a Constitutional Obligation "In a country like India where power,  wealth and opportunities are the monopoly of microscopically small and  scandalously overprivileged community, political Revolution is the only  Panacea aspointed by even Dr Ambedkar. While  the atrocities on SC-ST's keep on rising and recorded as if they are  the performance parameters of some blue chip company, While those who  want to finish the whole idea of Reservation are working overtime, round  the clock 365 days a year, the complacent beneficiaries are busy  watching their favourite TV shows or criticizing the serious activists  of the movement accusing them of selfish interests.Dr  B. R. Ambedkar had said on Tuesday July 31st 1956; at his residence 26  Alipur Road , New

Delhi at 05-50P.M. to his Personal secretary Mr. Nanak  Chand Rattu...Tell my people Nanak Chand. "You people do not know what  is troubling me and what makes me so sad.The first worry to my mind is  that I have not been able to fulfill my life's mission. I wanted to see  my people a governing class in my lifetime, sharing the political power  in terms of equality with other communities. I am now almost crippled  and prostrate with illness. Whatever I have been able to achieve is  being enjoyed by the educated few, who with their deceitful performances  have proved to be the worthless lot, with no sympathies for their  downtrodden brethren. They have surpassed my imagination; they live for  themselves and their personal gains. Not one of them is prepared to do  the social work. They are treading the path of their ruination. I now  wanted to divert my attention towards the vast illiterate masses in the  villages that continue to suffer and remained almost unchanged  economically. But life seems short....My lieutenants, in whom I had full  faith and confidence to run the movement, are fighting among themselves  for leadership and power,unmindful of the heavy responsibility that is  going to fall upon them... Any how I have done a lot in spite of the  abuses hurled at me from all sides and I will continue to do so till my  death."So saying, with tears rolling down his cheeks, he looked at me  and I had also no alternative but to look at him with tears in my eyes.  ... And with a pained  expression on his countenance whispered: "Take courage, don't get upset.  Life is to come to an end one day or the other." After a little pause,  wiping his tears,raising his hand a little above his glowing eyes, he  said: "Tell my people Nanak Chand: Whatever I have done, I have been  able to do after passing through crushing miseries and endless troubles  all my life fighting with my opponents. With great difficulty, I have  brought this caravan where it is seen today. Let the Caravan march on  and further on despite the hurdles, pitfalls and difficulties that may  come in its way. If my people, my lieutenants are not able to take the  caravan ahead, they should leave it where it is seen today, but in no  circumstances should they allow the Caravan to goback?"