A thought provoking article or view from a member of the ST, who reached a very high position in banking in India. It is important that different views need to be expressed to ensure that a more sensible policy is evolved.
In the state of UP, a demand is on the rise to change the bases of reservation policy, from SC, ST and OBC to Economic critera.
Mohan Bhagwat, the supremo of the RSS also has expressed views that are somewhat on he same line. Once again I am delighted that Mr Vasava has put pen on the paper. Let the debate begin.
- CB
The ongoing agitation in Gujarat needs to be looked at in its proper perspective. At the outset let me begin by saying what has led to this agitation. The Patel and other high castes complain that they do not get jobs in govt and that younger generation do not get admission to educational institutions presumably due to reservation of various categories. Before I deal with reservation policy, let me describe the root causes of unemployment.
There are basically four main reasons why unemployment rate is high among Gujarati youth.
· Inability of Gujarati youth to crack competitive exams
· Lack of proficiency in English
· Lack of soft skills especially communications skills and
· Lack of mobility
There are hardly any coaching classes in Gujarat unlike other states to prepare candidates for competitive exams be it banks, railways or civil service which in fact are largest employers in India. As a result even for group C posts i.e. clerical posts, candidates in these jobs are not selected from Gujarat. I have seen in the last 10-15 years in Gujarat, almost 80% of clerical staff and almost 95 % of officers staff in banks hail from other states .Same is the case with railways workforce in Gujarat. Gujaratis were not very much interested in jobs in the past because mostly they were running small businesses. Now most of the small scale industries are closed due to several factors such as high taxes, high electricity charges and influx of cheap Chinese goods in Indian market, quite apart there is a slump in the diamond business. Even if Patels are accorded OBC status, it is not going to be of much help as there are very few govt jobs in Gujarat.
Reservation policy: What was the rationale for providing reservation for SCs and STs in the first place? As the history states only the Hindu and Sikh religion follow the caste or Varna system. The man made hierarchical system wherein the Brahmin or priestly caste represent society’s head, the Kshatriya as warrior, the Vaishya’s the traders and landowners and at the lowest were the Sudras caste –the servants of the other three-are the feet. From time immemorial the sudras have been discriminated against, harassed, tortured and subjected to atrocities. The sudras were not allowed to touch the member of upper caste, not allowed to draw the water from the well meant for upper caste and not allowed to study even.
The communities which fall under Sudras now classified as Scheduled Castes under the Constitution of India are still subjected to the similar treatment although may be on a reduced scale but still exists. Go to any rural parts of India and one would will find the instances of atrocities. Very recently in the state of Uttar Pradesh a Dalit groom was not allowed to ride the horse and wear the headgear for bridegroom. He was made to wear helmet instead. Can you believe this happening in 21 century India? This is not an isolated instance of atrocities on Dalits .Many Dalit staff of govt or bank when posted in rural or semi urban areas are refused accommodation simply because they belong to Dalit community. There are thousands of such instances and I can vouch for this. Before independence, reservation of some sort existed for oppressed classes and it was only after independence that various Dalit communities were listed in a Constitution Scheduled hence known as scheduled castes.
The case of tribals is different. They are inhabitants of forest and hilly areas who shun the culture alien to them and do not mix with others. Although they are not subjected to untouchability but atrocities continued to be heaped on them.
There are three kinds of reservation viz 1. Reservation in employment 2. Reservation in educational institutions and 3. Reservation in legislatures. However I would restrict myself to first two types of reservations. The Article 16 states that no citizen shall be discriminated against on the basis of caste, creed or religion. However under same Article exception has been made under 16(4) that govt will be free to make special provisions for SC and STs. The Article 335 stipulates that claims of backward classes will be taken into account which is consistence with ensuring efficiency of administration. Although the reservation policy as enshrined in constitution is in existence since 1950 it was mainly on paper as there were hardly any SC/ST candidates in govt or bank jobs.
It was only after the 1970s that gradually the intake of SCs/STs started. Till 1970s most of, say 95% of the govt jobs and 99% of higher jobs and elite professions, were occupied by general category candidates and because of these reasons naturally there were no anti-reservation agitations. Once the education among SC/ST spread and filling up of revered category started, around the same time in the early 1980 the anti- reservation agitation started, first against SC/ST reservation and then OBCs making demands. It was during VP Singh’s tenure Mandal commission report was dusted off and the reservation for OBCs implemented.
This means that fruits of reservation had started bearing and one could find SC/ST candidates even in higher positions due to availability of candidates in feeder cadre.
The question is whether the reservation should continue the answer is categorical yes. But in what form and up to what time needs to be debated dispassionately. India is a democracy. The fruits of development have to reach all. And Govt has to ensure social justice for all. It cannot allow few communities to dominate jobs or admission seats and that is where reservation comes into play to provide fair representation to all sections of society. I can give one example of a Gujarat village where from a single community there are 38 police sub inspectors. Do you think only single village produced meritorious so many police inspectors?
It is here to prevent this sort of anomaly the govt affirmative action comes into play. And that is what the constitution provides for.-to ensure development of everybody irrespective of the caste, creed or religion, of course consistence with the merit. The competition in India for jobs and admission to educational institutions is so intense that large number of candidates chase those few jobs and admissions seats. The question is how to ensure merit at the same of taking care of reservations. Let me define merit. For every jobs or admission whether private sector and govt minimum standard is prescribed. For example let us say 50% .This is the standard at which the authority feels that candidate would be able to do the job. But in view of the fact that large of number of candidates chasing few jobs or seats, one has to select naturally the top candidates as per merit but it does not mean that candidates below the cut-off point of general category candidates are not fit to do the jobs.
There used to be time when the gap between general candidates and reserved says candidates used to be large. But not any longer. If the cut off for general category is say 84 % for admission to medicine for SC might be 80%, for OBC it might be 82%. I agree for ST the gap could be little larger but as the educational standards improve this gap would also be narrowing. Moreover there is so much competition even among SC/ST or OBC that only best among that category are selected. The gap was more about 20 years ago not anymore. Therefore it is a myth general candidates are selected say at 90% and SC/ST at 50% .Let the authorities publish data for the cut off point for each category of reservations whether for jobs or admission and let people judge themselves. There are many meritorious SC/ST candidates doing well in various fields but still they are being looked down. That attitude has to change. Given the opportunity reserved candidates can match the general standard.
What now?
However rising expectations of young generations needs to be taken into account. It is in this background that the reservation policy needs to have a relook. To begin with -to exclude the creamy layer from the benefit of reservation for each category of reservation. Let the children of SC/ST OBC directly recruited IAS,IFS,IPS, IRS, officers as also those holding constitutional positions like high court judges, supreme court judges, political positions like chief ministers, Governors, cabinet ministers at the centre should be excluded. Also those communities who are now adequately represented should also be excluded otherwise only few communities from among the reserved will dominate at the cost other less privileged and that anomaly needs to be removed as it is observed that some communities within the reserved categories dominate at the cost of other lesser privileged communities. For example the ‘Meena’ community of Rajasthan who fall under ST category I feel are adequately represented in jobs etc. and therefore it should be excluded from ST list. At the most it can be classified under OBCs. There might be some communities within SC or OBC which may need to be excluded.
Moreover this changes do not require constitutional amendment. This way it can be ensured that reservation benefit reaches to the lowest level and time should come when reservation policy should end. Whether the representation of reserved category has reached a particular stage should be borne out by the govt data so that the reservation can be done away with. If the SC/ST has been subjected to centuries of discrimination against, let the govt decide end date once and for all say up to 26 Jan 2050 and then reservation for all should end. Thereafter only financial assistance and free lodging/boarding should be given to backward classes to pursue the education.
In the meantime what needs to be done immediately is that reservation for economically backward classes is introduced subject of course within the 50% celling stipulated by the supreme court of India to take care of the poor from the upper caste.
The issue of reservation needs to be debated dispassionately sans politics of vote bank if only to create an egalitarian and just society if India were to become a developed in next couple of decades. It can be ignored only at the cost its peril.
- Hasmukh Vasava
[Hasmukh Vasava (56) a tribal has worked for eight years both in Gujarat government and a state govt undertaking before moving on to a premier public sector bank where he worked for over 25 years as a senior HR manager at various places within India besides stint in UK. While working at the bank he attended several meetings with parliamentary committees on SCs/STs and National Commission on SC/ST where he helped prepare the response of the bank to the parliamentary committees questionnaires and action taken report. Mr Vasava is also credited with drafting of a Brochure on reservation for SCs/STs which is a guide book for implementation of reservation policy in public sector financial institutions including RBI. He had conducted several country wide seminars for various institutions to educate senior functionaries on implementation of reservation policy. He is also associated with tribal voluntary associations engaged in upliftment of tribal of Gujarat. Presently he lives with family in London]
