“Caste is not a division of labor; it is a division of laborers”, wrote the most renowned Dalit reformer of free India, acrimoniously (Source). The Ambedkar vision for the annihilation of caste was pivotal for the newly awakened free India. It constitutionally bound the democratic Government to provide a positive stimulus for uplifting backward classes of people.
For the uninitiated reader, read this small excerpt on caste-system and it will lead you back to this article.
When India found its freedom, our founders knew that social efficiency & integration is imperative for progress, and the caste system has been everything but. Unfortunately, it had its defenders in 1947, and it still does in 2020. We have failed our discriminated, fellow countrymen!
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| Violence against Dalits has continued unabated |
BUT! present failure does not forebode future failure. An educated revision of our approach to cleansing India of this curse has been long overdue. A review of the “reservation system” in India, the foremost & controversial affirmative action against the caste system, is critical. It provides for a dedicated quota of positions in higher education and government jobs for the persecuted communities. The policy was designed to quantum leap the social change. This article is my attempt to put forth the issues with the current reservation system that was adopted by our founders and has now mutated into an unassailable beast. It is a critique of our over-reliance on reservations to fight discrimination; a method that has not been authoritatively proven to overcome discriminatory differences, and is not part of the affirmative action policies of many other countries, where racial discrimination had been prevalent in the past (Source).
By heredity, I follow Jainism and I think I belong to the so-called upper-caste. Unfortunately, if there is any bias in my views I cannot control my sub-conscious. Still, I will try my best to put forth an argument for the need to eliminate the reservation system and replace it with a more grassroots approach to solve the bane of caste. For an alternative opinion on the need for caste-based reservation system, here are a few opinions I have read during my research (Article 1)(Article 2)(Article 3).
In this article though, the fundamental question I wish to put forth is:
Has the reservation system that guarantees representation in education and public-sector employment, led to a dissociation of caste-identity?
Before discussing the problems with the prevalent reservation system, I need to discuss its extent.
Article 15 of the Indian constitution allows the state to make provisions for positive discrimination to uplift the “socially or educationally” backward sections, while Article 16 allows for reservations in state appointments and posts. It is noteworthy that Article 15 did not mention economic backwardness (Source), which has only recently been added when the current Central government included a 10 % reservation for the “Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)” (Source). Originally, the reservation was set at a 15% quota for the Scheduled Caste category that includes Dalits, and 7.5% quota for the Scheduled Tribe category that largely included the Adivasi communities. These quotas were to be implemented in admissions to government-aided educational institutions and jobs in public-sector companies or services (Source).
Later, a new category of Other Backward Classes (OBC’s) was suggested in a report by the Mandal Commission in 1983 (Source). It listed 3,743 different castes and communities, that belonged to the ‘shudra’ varna (in the varna system of Hindus), and were found to be socially and educationally backward (Source). At the time, no action was taken on those suggestions. However, 7 years later, in a rather turbulent political atmosphere, Prime Minister V. P. Singh pushed for the implementation of 27% reservations for OBC’s in government jobs (Source). It is alleged that this was done to strengthen his voter base given that OBCs comprised nearly 50% population.
It is remarkable to note that the Mandal report recommendations were based on a 1931 Census (Source), data that was 60 years old from when the OBC reservations were instituted.
Since 1931, no census had included the counting of the OBC population to date (2021 census is expected to do that). The OBC reservation policy was so drastic that violent protests erupted across the country and many will remember it because of the images of self-immolation of hundreds of youngsters (Source). While initially OBC reservation was only in government services, it was extended to higher education in 2006.
Due to the rapid politicization of the issue of reservation, many unforeseen protests have erupted in different areas of the country in recent years. Even communities, which have been known to be socially strong and dominant, have begun to ask for reservations. This includes the Gurjar protests in Rajasthan (Source), Patidar unrest in Gujarat (Source), Maratha agitation in Maharashtra (Source), and Jats across North India (Source).
The scale of present unrest could not have been anticipated in 1947 by the members of the drafting committee of the constitution but there was some inkling.
Everyone thought that affirmative action is needed and special provisions were needed to right the atrocities done under the name of caste system and untouchability. But a numerical quota in government institutions was not considered to be a good solution by some political stalwarts.
Sardar Patel touted it as being against the idea of one nation as it institutionalizes caste identity (Source), while Nehru suggested that it would result in an incompetent second-rate bureaucracy (Source). Mahatma Gandhi was also against the idea of reservations as it would instill a communal spirit (Source). Often such comments are considered biased as they come from leaders with an upper-caste background. To me, this was simply their foresight gained by observing the behavior of their fellow countrymen and constituent assembly members.
The primary focus of the reservation system was to create an adequate representation in the education and employment of the lower-caste Hindus who had been desisted from intellectual activities for several centuries. Such representation would result in positive feedback on policy development and implementation that would uplift these less-privileged sections of the society. Maybe the idea was that such a cycle would eventually blur the occupational and economic lines between different castes. It is important to remind us that economic backwardness was not the original target of the affirmative action policy as envisaged in the constitution. Rather it was just a means to achieve a greater goal.
In the following four-point critique of the reservation system, I will not touch upon its politicization, which is a topic in and of itself.
Politics of reservations, as it exists today, is reason enough to shelve the idea and use an alternative approach (Relevant Reading).
Barring that, here are four ideological points that in my opinion, beckon the need for an overhaul of India's affirmative action policies.
POINT ONE
The concept of adequate representation institutionalizes the idea that all citizens are not the same. It reinforces the idea that a caste can only be supported or uplifted by people from the same caste instead of people with the best skills.
There is no end to this rationale. Even among the scheduled caste category, there are hundreds of communities. Maybe each community should have a separate representative as proposed by the OBC leader Alpesh Thakor (Source). It may even be extended to the regional and linguistic divide as well. These extremes need to be discussed in the current socio-political climate of the country and it doesn't take an expert to see that this dismantles the concept of a meritocratic unified system. Every politician, bureaucrat, and public sector employee would then carry that identity in his/her work leading to the preferential treatment of their “caste, community or region” and not the people as a whole.
The conversation about quotas is always supported by proportional representation without discussing the original intent of that representation, which is dismantling the caste system.
More importantly, the idea of representation suggests that changes in the life/livelihood of the victim (in this case, Dalits and Tribals) will lead to a change in the behavior of the perpetrator (in this case, the Upper-caste Hindus). Instead, there should be massive educational campaigns about equality, the lawlessness of untouchability, and punishment for discrimination, especially geared towards the upper caste Hindus who are consistently miseducated about the caste system (Source).
We have abandoned the job of changing caste perception to the upward mobility of a few Dalits, who hopefully will gain a handful of positions of responsibilities.
Representation is already being achieved, at least in the public sector (Source) but caste-based identity persists in a likely more ingrained manner (Source). An example to the contrary is present in the US. There, even without a numerical quota in the legislature, higher education, or public sector employment, blacks have overcome racial barriers to have nearly proportional representation in government (Source).
POINT TWO
The biggest issue with a numerical quota is the decimation of competition and meritocracy. As Mahatma Gandhi articulately put it, if he needs five engineers, he needs five with the best grades and not one from each caste (Source).
Root Problems Unsolved: Due to the presence of reservations, political bodies find it easy to neglect the additional coaching needed by depressed class students (Source), boarding issues, basic healthcare, and financial support at the primary & secondary school level. These are all impediments before the competitive exams. This grassroots problem manifests in the results of Class X (shown below), where mean achievement scores are highly dependent on the caste of a student.
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| Data is obtained from a 2018 MHRD Report, "Educational Statistics at a Glance" (Source). |
Arun Shourie, the famous journalist turned politician, vehemently stated in an interview (as well as in his book) that all possible assistance must be made available to the students belonging to the depressed classes BEFORE the competition. But when the competition starts, let merit win! (Source) Another research article on the prevalence of caste discrimination at IIT-BHU suggests that reservation policy has not succeeded in leveling the playing field in higher education and intervention is needed in school years. (Source)
The disparity in the marks of Class X students shows our indifference in the shroud of the reservation system. Depressed classes need additional coaching, study stipends, and basic healthcare to prepare for the competition (Source).
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| Plots show the qualifying marks needed for admission in various examinations and institutes. Data sources: IAS (Source), JEE (Source), IIM-A (Source), NLU-B (Source) |
Large differences exist in various leading competitive examinations in the country as shown in the data above (Could not find OBC data for admissions to NLU Bangalore). This data shows that even after 70 years of that argument by Mr. Khandekar, the admittance of reserved category students continues to be done at disproportionately lower grades. In a free market, these grades would have led to a much smaller fraction of reserved category students entering into higher education.
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Management-wise distribution of the percentage of students enrolled in Universities for each reserved category. (Data Source: AISHE)
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More compelling evidence of the problem with factionalizing the competition into different categories is evident from this figure. It represents the percentage of students enrolled in different types of universities that belong to different reserved categories.
The representation in public sector universities and Institutes of Eminence is nearly proportional to the share of reserved category population as mandated by the reservation policy. But as soon as we move to the free market forces represented by the private sector universities, we see a much smaller fraction of enrollments secured by the SC and ST students. Supporters of the reservation system would argue that we need reservations in private universities to fight this active discrimination (Source). I would not deny that caste-based discrimination could be a reason but it would be arrogant to say that it is the only reason. The competence level of students (evidenced by competitive exams), as well as financial constraints, maybe playing a bigger role in the low enrollment in private institutions of higher education.
POINT THREE
It perpetuates the caste system. There is no discussion on the expiration for the reservation system. The perversion of such reservations can be observed in Malaysia where even shop areas are reserved for native Malays, who are identified as the discriminated class (Source). The identification of an individual by his/her caste is essential to determine these quotas. Hence, the basic premise of creating a casteless society fails! This was also acknowledged in a high court judgment on the collection of caste data by schools in Haryana (Source). As mentioned earlier, the agitations for more reservations of different communities is embedding the caste identity even more.
This perpetuation lies in proof and inter-caste marriage is the holy-grail of breaking caste barriers. A study from 2011 finds that only 5.82% of marriages are inter-caste marriages and the trend has been more or less horizontal for the past 4 decades (Source).
POINT FOUR
The foundation of reservation-based approach against the caste system was that representatives of a community in education and employment would holistically benefit that community.
But, a recent ruling of the supreme court has identified that there is ONLY an upper-section of SC, ST, and OBC classes who are actively extracting the benefits of the reservation system (Source)(Source)(Source). This section uses these quotas several times for each individual, and for several individuals in each family. The concept of the “creamy layer” (a socially advanced group within the reserved category who are legally not allowed to benefit from the reservation policy) only exists for the OBC’s in practice, which is oftentimes misused by making fake certificates for admissions in educational institutions (Source).
Another fact that puts into doubt the holistic upliftment of caste is that data shows that even now, many in the depressed communities are unaware of the reserved quota in education and government jobs (Source).
The answer is not in a representative of “my” community but a good representative from “any” community.
The concept of CASTE, as it exists today, must be destroyed.
Studies have shown that untouchability persists in the 21st century but the complicated and fragmented polity in India makes it difficult to review our approach to tackle the issue.
A larger fraction of Dalit and tribal classes is poor compared to the general category and OBCs. While there is no data source, it stands to reason that Dalit or Tribal students are more likely to study in low-cost Government schools. Several studies have shown that government schools fare worse than private schools (Source) and lack the international standards for competing in a globalized world.
After training a section of students in less competent ways, this failure at the school level is brushed off by providing reservations for higher education.
This is a double-whammy where we neglect the fundamental issue and then less-than-meritocratic admissions are bestowed with the responsibility to solve that same fundamental issue.
My view is against this method of problem-solving. It brews slow growth, inter-caste animosity, political unrest, and perpetuates discriminatory attitudes. It is a greater disservice to the depressed classes that we stick to a solution methodology that has benefitted in terms of representation but fails on many other accounts as the article hopefully addressed.
Several alternate forms of reservations, including the creation of a vulnerability index or social disadvantage index, have been suggested by more prolific writers/researchers in the field (Source)(Source)(Source). Furthermore, ideas for achieving social justice through land reforms, and added means of capacity building for the depressed classes (Source), have been suggested to supplant the weakly-performing liability of reservations. Hence, there is no reason for me to reinvent the wheel.
As a bystander to the dance of casteism, I just have one suggestion for policy-makers. We should stop including the family name of an individual during the application and interview process for government jobs and entry in educational institutions. Simply identify them with a number or token for that process. This too, should not last forever!
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