Reservation in India

Reservation, in India, is a policy by which a fixed number of slots in educational and government institutions are allotted to members of certain communities based on castes. The communities that are eligible for reservation have historically been Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Recently, there has been a move to expand the scope of reservation to other backward castes (OBCs) as well.

Reservation is often confused to be a form of affirmative action. As it is largely based on the caste of the person, it is better described as a quota and less as a form of affirmative action that is prevalent in countries like the US.

Purpose

The stated reason for the implementation of reservation is the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens, such as the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, who had been subjected to thousands of years of discrimination by India's upper castes . When India gained its independence, the constitution gave special provision for certain communities to have a minimum representation in various fields. This initial provision was to have ended after a few years, but the practice continues and the government has amended the constitution, continuing to increase quotas to the extent that many institutions now reserve more than 50% of their seats.

History of the practice

India is divided into many endogamous groups (castes) and sub-groups (sub-castes) as a result of centuries of practicing a form of social hierarchy called the caste system. The caste system caused a monopoly for the upper castes on various resources which included inter alia - denial of access to education & religion.

Following its independence from Britain, the government of India embarked upon the task to reduce the massive historical inequalities between various castes by advocating an extensive system of quotas. This system was prior to and somewhat similar to American affirmative action but much more pervasive and severe. For this purpose the government categorized the population into three groups - the Scheduled Tribes (the castes considered untouchables), Scheduled Castes, and Other Backward Classes (the touchable but low castes). The remaining group are often categorized as the forward castes. These distinctions were made roughly along caste lines but focused more on a group's economic standing rather than historical oppression. Also they apply to non-Hindu groups as well, for example, Saint Thomas Christians are categorized as forward class but relatively recent north-eastern tribal converts are classified as Scheduled Tribes.

Although originally only supposed to last for 10 years, the Indian quota system has grown and become more extensive, and today and applies to everything from government contracting to higher education to legislative office. Currently 23% of the seats in higher education institutes under the central government are set-aside for SCs and STs. Before 2005, there was no provision for reservation for OBCs in central government run institutes but different state governments had implemented reservations for OBCs to different degrees. For instance the Southern state of Tamil Nadu has reserved 69% of the seats for SCs,STs and OBCs. It should be noted that students from the reserved category are allowed to compete with students from the general category on merit as well and hence the actually percentage of SC/ST/OBCs in Tamil Nadu could be well over 69%.

Mandal commission was formed in 1978 and asked to submit a report on the backward classes in the country. The commission didn't have exact figures of OBCs and hence used the 1930s census data to estimate the OBC population at 54%. Mandal Commission used census data from 1930s as caste based census were not available after then. However, various recent estimates by government agencies puts it anywhere between 29% to 36% of the population. Original Mandal report classified 1257 communities as backward. But ever since the implementation of Mandal report recommendations in 1991 for government jobs, the number of backward communities have grown (due to continuous incorporation by various state governments, which, critics say, is a clever ploy to get votes from these uneducated communities). As of 2006, 2297 communities are listed as backward, a 90% increase from 1991. It should also be noted that no community has been removed from the list, based on the progress made. Listing some of the most dominant and populous communities as OBCs haved raised doubts of political parties gaining electoral mileage out of it.

A proposal to increase the reservation for backward groups in universities to 49.5% to include OBCs in all central government institutes of higher education in 2006 has caused a great deal of controversy and protests by people from different sections of society.

This is considered to be a highly controversial issue in the country--in 1990, a similar proposal to raise the quota reserved for the Other Backward Castes in jobs and education led to massive protests and self-immolation by several forward caste students. Rajiv Goswami, one such student became the enduring image of the protest as he immolated himself.

Many people now argue that due to the urbanisation in India the caste system has lost its importance and that reservation based on castes today is not necessary. Some also point out the reservation was only intended by the framers of the Indian constitution to last for about two decades, with in which they had predicted that caste systems would perish. Others oppose this view saying that it is still practiced in both rural and urban parts of the country. However there have been suggestions to the government to allocate reservation for the minority communities if they are from the lower socio-economic part of the society.

This decision of the Congress government is also being criticized, as it is seen to be taken in order to increase its vote bank. Elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh are approaching and the population of Uttar Pradesh consist of a huge number of OBCs. Critics say the net effect of this act will be very dangerous to the Indian society and will result in a great economic as well as social set back.

Arguments

Pro-reservation arguments

The advocates of the plan say:

• . . .that there is no adequate representation of oppressed classes in these institutes corresponding to their population.
• . . .that due to historical and current oppression, it is not fair to expected the oppressed classes to compete with the so-called upper class students.
• . . .that these measures can somehow help to undo centuries of oppression.
• . . .that safeguards already exist to protect against exploitation by people who have a good economic background.
• . . .that reservations have been present in states like Tamil Nadu for many years and have produced good results in promoting social justice without compromising quality.
• . . .that such Affirmative action policies, without quotas, exist in other countries
• . . .that all sections of population irrespective of income and skill levels are contributing to the country in form of labour, sales tax and incom tax. Its rightful that everyone is equally represented.

Anti-reservation arguments

The opponents of the issue argue:

• . . .that allocating quotas on the basis of caste is a form of racial discrimination which is contrary to the right to equality as provided by the Constitution of India.
• . . . that as a consequence, legislation for providing reservation for Christians and Muslim religious minorities in all government education institutions will be introduced , which is contrary to the ideas of secularism, as provided by the Constitution of India, and is a form of discrimination on the basis of religion.
• . . .that most often, only the economically sound people (and rather rich) from the so-called lower castes will make use of most of the reserved the seats, thus making the aim a total failure.
• . . .that the quality of these elite institutes may go down, because merit is severly being compromised by "securing" seats for certain caste-based communities.
• . . .that there are no efforts made to give proper primary education to really deprived classes, so there is no need to reserve seats for higher studies. The government schools in India have absolutely no comparison to the public schools in the developed countries, and only about 65% of the Indian polupation is literate (can read and write), the functional literacy being estimated to be even as low as only 34% of the population. The critics argue that "reservation" only in higher institutions and jobs (without paying attention to proper schooling) cannot solve this problem.
• . . .that the government is dividing people on the basis of castes for political advantages.
• . . .that this can also lead to prolonged reservation system indefinitely
• . . .that, in a way, the caste system is kept alive through these measures. Instead of coming up with alternative innovative ideas which make sure equal representation at the same time making the caste system irrelevant, the decision is only fortifying the caste system.
• . . .that great educational institutes of the world are formed from the academic freedom they have, but in India politicians make the higher education institutes a thing to play with. Politicians decide who the institutes should admit, how they should admit etc. Even the earlier Human Resources Development minister Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi planned to take away the autonomy of IIMs.
• . . .that not everyone from the so-called upper class are rich, and not all from so called lower classes are poor, and that some of the OB Cs are politically very powerful, especially in north India. Critics say that for most of the castes included in the OBC criterion, the main reason they got included is only "cheap and dirty politics" (sic) and powerful lobbying by those rich and powerful members of these castes who have a political clout.
• ...that this policy of the Congress will create a huge unrest in the Indian society. Providing quotas on the basis of caste and not on the basis of merit will deter the determination of many educated and deserving students of India.
• ...that this policy of the government will also increase the phenomenon of Brain Drain from India and the under graduates and graduates will start moving to foreign universities for higher education.This will be in such a case a great set back and will have the most devastating affects on Indian education and economy.

Other notable suggestions

The following policy changes have been suggested in order to find a solution to the problem:

• There should be proper monitoring of who takes benefits out of the facilities given.
• Emphasis should be given to proper primary (and secondary) education so that people from so called lower strata of the society become natural competitors.
• Increase the number of higher education institutes. For example, seven good engineering institutes for a country of one billion planning to become an economic and political power in the world is not substantial at all.
• Once a person gets a job from the quotas it should not be extended to his/her kids as it would make the community complacent and also at the same time deny opportunities to other more deserving candidates from the lower community. Essentially a shrinking population base that needs upliftment will happen by adopting this policy.
• Bhargava of the National Knowledge Commission proposed a time bound program, more emphasis on primary education and excluding the creamy layers from reservations

Recent developments

Main article: Indian anti-reservation protests, 2006

In the year 2005, based on the recommendations of an independent panel, the UPA government at the centre proposed to implement quota system for Scheduled caste, Schedule tribe, Other Backward Classes (OBC) and minority communities in IITs and IIMs (for both students and faculty). It was strongly opposed by the opposition led by BJP as "dangerous and divisive".

In order to pave way for such reservation scheme, the Constitution of India was amended (the 93rd Constitutional Amendment, originally drafted as 104th Amendment Bill). In 2006, the UPA government promised to implement 27% reservation for OBCs in institutes of higher education (twenty central universities, the IITs, IIMs and AIIMS) after 2006 Assembly elections. This, if implemented, would reduce the seats for the general section of the population to less than 50.5% (since those for whom the quota is granted can also compete with the general section on merit).

This led to sharp reactions from the student communities in the institutes concerned (especially students from medical institutes) and also substantial opposition from students of other colleges not getting affected by the proposed reservation scheme. Students gathered under the banner of "Youth for Equality" and demanded that the government roll back its decision to grant more reservations. Excluding certain places in the southern states, it led to nationwide protests, including hunger strikes (especially by medical students), though the government and the police took stern measures to suppress the protestors. In Mumbai on May 17, the police beat the peaceful anti-reservation agitators (medical students of King Enward and other medical colleges of Mumbai) with sticks, leading to a furor among the other students in the other cities. Pro-reservation groups have claimed the anti-reservation protests have succeeded largely due to biased media reporting.

Two members of the National Knowledge Commission - Dr. P B Mehta and Dr. A Beteille resigned opposing the reservation move. Dr. P B Mehta and Dr A. Beteille made their positions clear in the resignation letters which they made public.

Population data

According to 2001 census, out of India's population of 1,028,737,436 the Scheduled castes comprises 166,635,700 and Scheduled Tribe 84,326,240, that is 16.2% and 8.2% respectively. There is no data on OBCs in the census. However, according to National Sample Survey's 1999-2000 round around 36 per cent of the country's population is defined as belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBC). The proportion falls to 32 per cent on excluding Muslim OBCs. A survey conducted in 1998 by National Family Health Statistics (NFHS) puts the proportion of non-Muslim OBCs as 29.8 per cent.

Current quotas, relaxations and preferences

The quota system sets aside a proportion of all possible positions for members of a specific social group. Those not belonging to the designated communities can compete only for the remaining positions, while members of the designated communities can compete for all positions (reserved and open). Even if no qualified SC/ST applicants are available, the reserved positions can not be released for general population but have to be kept vacant or carried over to the future.

• Members of National Parliament: 22% of the seats are reserved for SC/ST.
• PG seats in Medical Colleges : some seats reserved for graduates of the corresponding college.
• PEC Chandigarh : currently 50% seats reserved for Chandigarh domiciles, earlier it was 80%.
• Central government-funded higher education institutions: 22.5% for scheduled caste (dalit) and scheduled tribe (adivasi) students. HRD Minister Arjun Singh has proposed raising this to 49.5%, by including reservation for OBCs also.
  • IITs:

1. A quota of 23 % is reserved for the SC/ST students.
2. The minimum marks criteria are relaxed for reserved seats.
3. Candidates not meeting this cutoff are offered admission to a one year preparatory course.
4. Tuition fees and room rent is waived.

• Andhra educational institutes and government jobs: 25% for BCs, 15% for SCs, 6% for STs and 5% to Muslims, total: 51% (proposed)
• Medical schools:
  • AIIMS: 14% reserved for SC, 8% for ST. In addition, SC/ST students with only 50% scores are eligible.
• Members of State assemblies:
• Government jobs: In general; in the states the reservations are approximately proportional to percentage population of SC/ST groups.
  • Kerala: Kerala Public Service Commission Muslim quota: 12%
• Public Sector Corporations: Recruitment and promotion requirements are relaxed and residances are reserved.

External links

• Reservations immortalized? (Article On Reservations for OBCc/BCc)
• Reservation: Quota or Quality
• Voice Against Reservation
• Reservation Compared with Communism and Racism
• Reservation must for a healthy society
• Reservation is a crime against humanity
• Youth for Equality
• Reservation as viewed by Indian industry
• Reservation as viewed by a backward class proponent
• Reservation is immoral
• Supporting Reservation
• Southern record - Frontline
• Examining reservation
• TN doctors rally for reservation

• Poll on Reservation in India
• Blogs on Reservation
• Quotes on Quota