Though the goals of affirmative action to aid and promote disadvantaged minorities are loudable, the implementation of reservations in India are used for just political gains.
Reservations without any regard for merits are like giving alms to some one and doesn't do any good in the long run. The right way for upliftment of disadvantaged minorities would be to provide them full state support and resources for better education from the childhood. This takes longer then the sweet little immediate promises of reservations in jobs and education but would work much better. Big problem though is that it wouldn't provide any political gains for those in power so how much are the chances that anyone would be interested in that?!
On the other hand laws alone can't change societies. If that was the case we would have eradicated corruption from India long time ago! Same would hold true for social prejudices. It is a slow process through education. It seems to be already working at least in the urban India.
In short 'Reservations' are not the answer to this issue. They are just the political tools in the hands of people who want to divide and rule!
I too was of the opinion that reservations should 'now' be done away with completely. After all it is now 57 yrs since our independence. But, a look around ourselves in our respective societies, will make us wake up to the reality. The backward castes are still being discriminated. They are still suffering. We 'have to ' move towards a 'casteless' society, if, we have the desire to be a developed nation in the near future. It is absolutely inhuman to discriminate amongst humans. To deny thier right to 'opportunity'. To deny them the right to 'move up in life'. Though some, from the upper castes may argue, 'for how long'? Here, it is very important for us to realise, that, the injustice has been meted out to the backward classes for hundreds of years, while we have faced this for a mere 57 yrs! They need time. We should realise, that 'they' are 'our very own people'. Even though we give reservations, we now need to raise the standards, especially in the specialised fields like engg and medicine. Reservations are neccessary, but they should not be 'doled' out. Muslims too need to be integrated and not 'appeased' for votes. India, then, would truly 'rise'!!!
Still better to do will be help the Dalits to open businesses and have them to take 100% minorities. This will save them of the discrimination they would face once they get their jobs.
Job reservation in India for Minorities is very similar to Localisation in many Arab countries. The organisations in Arab Countries have become so dependent on Expats that the locals do not have jobs. So now the trend is for the Govt to armtwist the private organisations to recruit locals for a particular % of the work force.
The private companies satisfy this requirement by recruiting locals in non-descript positions & not actually getting them into the mainstream.
Reservation in private organisations will only get these discriminated guys more frustration after they land these jobs. what do you think - that the "upper-caste" co-workers are going to welcome these guys and accept them in the mainstream. these guys are likely to be insulted every day with words that shall demean their reservation - this ofcourse is happening silently in the govt offices too.
Suffering can stop only by total independence. An exclusive SC/ST company doing well will go a long way in improving their lives.
Prafull as usual seems to be a confused person. He quotes ancient scripture, which in today's context of life and living is observed more in breach than in practice. Isolated instances of injustice by some schizophrenic persons in the upper caste group cannot be termed the regular practice widely prevalent today. The solution for the reduction in the inequalities lies in providing adequate and reasonable opportunity to the socially and economically backward persons (irrespective of their caste labels which solely arise by birth) to have appropriation education for coming up in life. Perpetual reservation system only creates more laggards and does not contribute to bringing up their quality. He has not uttered a word about the creamy layer; no government is prepared to concede officially that creamy layer exists, despite the directives of the Apex Court that this has to be identified and withdrawan from the privilege of reservation.
The author justifies the reservation system pointing to the lack of opportunities and support for underprivileged communities. Years of reservation has proved nothing to improve quality of life for these sections. The system is such that if a person claims to be in SC/ST or lower caste, he/she can get into a good college or good government position even if he has underperformed. This does not do anything to improve the quality of life, it only causes more problems. Clearly this system has a big flaw and has to be acknowledged. The focus should be quality primary education and providing the confidence to compete at the finest level, and not at just grabbing a job out of a talented person and giving it to someone who has not proven merit. So if you are talking of reservation it will never work, except rob the enthusiasm of performers and to make them go abroad. And pls dont compare the researvation for ethnic minorities in US. They go through the same standards of testing as others, and the quality is never compromised.
first and foremost, you are nothing more then a left wing extremist. So with that in mind, everyone knows there are inequalities in India, we don't need a left wing extremist to tell us that. And as a left wing extremist you don't really care about the poor, its all about using them to dream about a possible Bolshevik revolution. Now as you know inequalities widen the more improvished a country is. And as a left wing extermist you know that the ideas you hold so very dear create nothing but improvishment. This may be hard for you to stomach, but your Chinese friends reduced their poverty by dumping ideas that left wing extermists like yourself hold so dear. Now India has followed suit, and dumped ideas which have held it down for decades, much to your disdain. So the improvished have some light at the end of tunnel, and see some possibility of moving up the economic ladder. This is all very bad news for left wing extremist like yourself. Thats right less poor to help you with your Bolshy dream. Oh dear another left wing extremist dream up the spout. Sorry.
The simple truth is that reservations themselves create more barrier between so called "upper" castes and "lower" castes communities. Reservation itself means discrimination, which I would consider against the principles of democracy.
I obeserved the author repeatedly comparing everything with US and equal opportunity, etc. But on the other hand he also tries to advocate for reservations. Do you know, that when you fillup any employment/college admission form in US, the ethnicity field is 'Optional'. What does this mean?
Even though I'm classified as an OBC, I would still strongly object the concept of discrimination based of caste, race, sex or whatever, whether you name it reservations or "positive" discrimination.
Praful shows his servility to the colon-ists by copying their depiction of varna. It is not based on birth the way later colonial caste system was. also, manusmriti is not scripture because it is not revealed text as christian 'scriptures' are. manusmriti is a social theory by one author long ago, and was never enforced in the entire history of india. so it is neither divine sanctioned nor human made law. it is simply a text just as prafool's texts would not be called scriptures by future historians who run into them. his data on US affirmative action is false. these developments were made through education and not hiring quotas in the US. Using prafool's logic, one must also note that 25% of Indian journalists in english are christians while only 2.5% of India's population is Christian.
Best column of the decade on rediff.com. In this column prafull has very well analysed a social evil which becomes more dangerous even after nearly 60 years of independence. Prafull deserves human right award for protecting of the human right of people. Take lesson so called Pandits and BANIAS.
RE:prafull is the best columnist
by Ravi on Aug 23, 2004 10:59 AM
there is no doubt that reservation kills merit. if the candidate is meritorious, there is no need for reservation. their belief is that any job can be done by anybody (irrespective of their skillset). everybody is equal and capable given the opportunities. in some places, dalits are denied social opportunities mostly due to poverty. govt should ensure that they get enough opportunities to equip themselves with enough skillsets to compete with their fellow Indians!
