Reinvent Reservation
Affirmative action must go beyond caste and factor in economic backwardness
The Supreme Court's decision to strike down reservations for the Jat community by inclusion in the central list of Other Back ward Classes lays bare the deplorable vote bank politics that successive governments have indulged in. It will be recalled that the previous UPA government had granted OBC status to Jats on the eve of 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Subsequently, the NDA government defended the decision in the apex court. Describing the policy as a reflection of negative and retrograde governance, the Supreme Court has asserted that caste alone can't be the criterion for determining backwardness.There's no denying that the reservation policy has been distorted far beyond its original intention. What was supposed to be a temporary tool to uplift the weakest sections of society has seen an increasing number of castes join the quota bandwagon. The floodgates were opened by the Mandal Commission. It triggered a curious race to the bottom with several socially privileged groups such as the Jats demanding reservations on the basis of perceived historical disadvantages. Recall the absurd case in 2007 of the Gujjars demanding Scheduled Tribe status in Rajasthan even though they were already classified as OBC.
Unfortunately, all political parties have tried to further their respective political agendas by promising reser vations to different groups and slicing the quota pie progressively thinner. But if reservations truly worked, logic demands that at least a few communities wouldn't need quotas after decades of reservations.However, as pointed out by the apex court, there have been no exclusions from the OBC list despite overall development in the country.In reality reservations have only created a privileged creamy layer within beneficiary communities.
It's welcome that the Supreme Court has urged the government to devise better methods to determine backwardness. Affirmative action cannot be blind to present-day realities. Though in many cases caste overlaps with social backwardness, there's a need to invert today's approach and consider factors such as economic backwardness. This will automatically factor in caste disadvantages, as the poorest tend to belong to lower castes, while also keeping out the creamy layer. Instead of the extensive slicing and dicing of the electorate that goes on today to serve political interests at the cost of sparking caste antagonisms and entrenching the caste system a neat and elegant solution is to make economic backwardness the primary criterion for affirmative action.
Unfortunately, all political parties have tried to further their respective political agendas by promising reser vations to different groups and slicing the quota pie progressively thinner. But if reservations truly worked, logic demands that at least a few communities wouldn't need quotas after decades of reservations.However, as pointed out by the apex court, there have been no exclusions from the OBC list despite overall development in the country.In reality reservations have only created a privileged creamy layer within beneficiary communities.
It's welcome that the Supreme Court has urged the government to devise better methods to determine backwardness. Affirmative action cannot be blind to present-day realities. Though in many cases caste overlaps with social backwardness, there's a need to invert today's approach and consider factors such as economic backwardness. This will automatically factor in caste disadvantages, as the poorest tend to belong to lower castes, while also keeping out the creamy layer. Instead of the extensive slicing and dicing of the electorate that goes on today to serve political interests at the cost of sparking caste antagonisms and entrenching the caste system a neat and elegant solution is to make economic backwardness the primary criterion for affirmative action.
