by VISHAL KUMAR PRAJPATI
On Lok Sabha pool's the Narendra Modi government has introduced 10 per cent reservation in government jobs and seats in higher education, based on 'economic' backwardness.
There are two obvious factors that have shaped the government 's move.The government's moved. The government's performance over the last five years has been abysmal in the area of job creation. The BJP won 2014 polls promising in its manifesto 25 core jobs over a 10-year period-or 2.5 core new jobs a year .On the ground, though the job data is sketchy, growing joblessness is Narendra Modi's Achilles hell. The center for Monitoring Indian Economy estimates that from 2016, when unemployment was 4.7 per cent, the the figure has edged up to over 6 per cent in the calendar year 2018. The more .The more immediate panic for the BJP is the drubbing it got in the assembly elections in three Hindi heartland states; and rising employment among the educated youth in Chhattisgarh shaped the huge swing away from BJP in that state.
The haste and legal unpreparedness is not really a bother for the BJP government.It is more interested is sending a message to the upper castes - like the agitating Marathas in Maharastra and Patels in Gujarat who is considers as its being created for them too. Whether it will pass the constitutional muster that it is over and above the 50 per cent caste based reservation is also of distant concern.
RESERVATION DEBATE
The policy of reverse discrimination through providing quotas in job and education for those who need a leg-up- socially and culturally discriminated 'scheduled ' and other backward castes and adivasis - has been hotly debated for long. The communists as late as the 1980s blindly held on to the theory that poverty was a result of 'class' discrimination and 'caste' was only a kind of cultural deviation in the Indian context.
It was the Dalit movement of the 1980s and the re-reading of B R Ambedkar Jyotiba phule and Periyar that brought to the fore that caste was more pernicious, more deep-seated then fore that brought to the fore that caste was more pernicious, more deep-seated then earlier imagined. It was not only that the poorest were among the backward castes; but that after 40 years of Independence and 'reservations', the social and cultural discrimination suffered by the 'Dalits ' was alive and kicking. It is seen in the seregation in education and festivals; and in the assignment of filth -re-lated jobs 'Reservatios' could not annihilate caste; but they were a small panacea to a much larger challenge.
'Reservations' as a social instrument has evolved over three phases. Post-Independence saw the completion of the first cycle of reservation for the 'untouch-able' SC and tribes approximate percentage of their population -22.5 per cent.The Mandal Commission broadened the scope by identifying the need for reservation for the Other Backward Castes(OBCs). This was legalised by former Prime Minister V P singh in 1992, with additional reservation of 27 percent of(OBCEs)
And now, we have 'reservation' in the general category based on being 'poor' economically! One close examination, is this real category that faces discrimination on the basis of Merit? Or has it been created to please the 'poor' of the forward castes who otherwise have a fire access who otherwise have fair access to jobs and education?
MUDDLED POLICY?
As Noble laurate Amartya Sen put it,economic quotas shows up the "muddled thinking " of the current government. If reservation is extended to the whole population, then what is left of reservation with PTI. Perphaps, the most equitable option is to continue the current caste-based reservation, but with an aggressive exclusion policy of the 'creamy' layer.
Finally, where are economic quotas headed? Even the biggest optimist will see it is going to be an administrative night-mare. Those who own 5 acres or more ,have a residential plot of more then 1,000 sq ft and or/own a 100 a 100 yard plot in a notified municipal area. How are these assets going to be identified and certified?
Unless there is strong growth and job creation in the economy, these measures will remain paliatives. Reservation and quotas is government jobs account for not more not more then 4 economy.Quotas to end social and economic discrimination will only have meaning if the long-standing demand to include the private sector is implemented. Following liberali-sation , government jobs are on the decline ,accounting for just some 175 lakh as compared to private sector, which has pushed up the count from 88 lakh to 1.2 corer (Economic survey 1016-2017 ).
But then,is there any intent in government to go beyond palliatives?
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