Hello friends.... Good to see you all once again through my blog.
Far too many lapses in our law is also adding to the confusion. As per our law, you can convert to another religion from your religion by birth. But you cannot change your caste. For example, by birth I'm a Brahmin and let us assume I'm converting myself to some other religion. I can then say I belong to that particular religion, but my caste will remain as Brahmin forever... Do you think this makes any sense??? The same applies to my children as well as by birth they will be Brahmin (because of my caste)...
Now, recent Supreme Court judgement regarding women entering Sabarimala temple was based on the interpretation of "discrimination" to women (as per the law and the Constitution) and thus the judgement was passed. If our law says that the children will take after the religion and caste of the father and not mother (in case of inter-caste/inter-religion marriage), isn't that a discrimination to women? Law is totally confusing in this scenario... In January 2012, Supreme Court dismissed the decision of Gujarat High Court and Scrutiny Committee (Civil Appeal No.654 - Rameshbhai Dabhai Naika vs State of Gujarat & others) but didn't pass a clear cut verdict. Rather directed the Scrutiny Committee to further examine the documentary evidence carefully and pass a new judgement. Why such a disparity in interpretation of the law between HC and SC? Isn't it because the law itself is vague in its definition?
We have written the laws and Constitution right after Independence but never bothered to revisit and change it based on the needs and changes of the society (but remember Indian Constitution has 123 amendment bills and 101 amendment acts as of date but the politicians did not bother to visit the reservation clause purely because of the vote bank).
To remove this evil of reservation system in India, it is suggested the following:
As per the census conducted in 2011, Scheduled Castes (SC) were only 16.60% of the population and Scheduled Tribes (ST) were only 8.60% of the population. So, we have created a reservation system for only about 25% of the population, which is unjust.
In 70 years of independence, if the Government thinks that they couldn't uplift the social and economical condition of the 'backward community', isn't it proof enough that the reservation system is not working and we don't need it anymore?
If you want to know the total number of SC/ST category in every state of India, visit this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scheduled_Tribes_in_India. It is amazing to see a country whose constitution is based on 'secularism' has so many divisions
General public will not protest against this reservation system as majority of the public fall under the category of 'backward community' and it is benefiting them whether it's right or not (a study says only about 30% of Indians fall under the 'open category' and does not get any benefit out of reservation system). Our Government can definitely do the above changes but we all know the real reason why they are so "reserved" in doing so...
In my earlier blog regarding education system, we did briefly discuss that the eligibility requirements for admission into colleges / universities varies based on the caste to which the student belongs.
Reservation system is not new in India, these reservation concepts are ancient, we can read about this in ancient books like Manusmriti and other Hindu literature, which classified the society, in principle, into four Varnas:
- Brahmins - priests, scholars and teachers
- Kshatriyas - rulers, warriors and administrators
- Vaishyas - merchants
- Shudras - laborers and service providers
This
classification was also a kind of reservation, and this lead to CAST-ISM, which is now
deep in our roots. People were not ready to compromise on anything
related to caste. They were not even sitting together. Therefore some
sections of society degraded to lowest living standards while some
sections became very prosperous. As the time changed the form of reservation has only changed. As India gained freedom, few policies were made for the uplifting of backward class people. These policies due to CAST-ISM became politically controversial topics and never left our system because we are still stuck to CASTE.
We have to remember that in ancient times, the population was less, opportunities limited and hence the job/profession were limited based on the caste and over a period of time, this has become a reservation system. In current situation, where everybody gets opportunity for higher studies, work and such, why do we need a reservation system based on caste?
Why do we have a caste based reservation system when our Constitution states that India is a secular society (all are equal)? When and what's the reasoning behind creating a caste based reservation system?
Upon
Independence of the country from British, Gandhi felt that reservation
system is mandatory in order to bring equality to all people and the
people from suppressed society will get an opportunity for education and
job. Dr. Ambedkar's opinion was "Legislation doesn’t change people. I don’t
believe that reservation of constituencies or jobs for Dalits would
change the way Indian society looked at its lower castes". But due to
the pressure from Gandhi and Nehru, he reluctantly
agreed to reservation in the belief that it would be discontinued in 10
years after adoption of the Constitution. But after 70 years later,
reservation remains an issue in India. Originally, the reservation was
supposed to be in place for 10 years and after that to be abolished in
the belief that the oppressed community would have, by then, got equal
opportunity to uplift their social status.
But
what happened in reality? Even after 70 years, we still have
reservation system and we have added much more categories into the
SC/ST/OBC category. Why? This is purely political and all the
politicians wanted to keep or increase their vote bank with the so
called backward caste people. Did this help our country in any way? I
definitely believe that it has not. Every year we can see news that
some of the reserved quota of seats going unfilled in colleges and
universities as there were not enough candidates from those backward
community to apply. Added to that, people keep protesting to add their caste into the backward community so that they can get the benefits of the reservation system (recent protest by Patel community in Gujarat, earlier protest by Jat community in Haryana, etc.). During these protests, valuable human lives were lost... Is this what we wanted to achieve with this caste based reservation system? If the reservation system has not worked for 70 years, we can clearly understand that the system has failed... What's the point in continuing with a system which is not working?
What is surprising is that our constitution clearly is a
reservation-friendly constitution but nowhere in the constitution is the
term ‘backward classes' defined. What actually constitutes a backward
class? What are the determinants of a backward class? These questions
remain unanswered and it is only with the help of judicial
pronouncements that they have been given some meaning (again everything is left to interpretation of the judges, as nothing concrete is defined). Question arises
how can reservations be made for something that has not been defined?
Today when a student applies for an admission in any university, the
admission forms are filled with questions like ‘Are you SC/ST or OBC or
General Category?’ How does it matter which category does he/she belong to,
what matters is his/her merit. A caste cannot decide whether they are
eligible for admission or not. There are many economically worse off
children belonging to the forward classes but they cannot get the fruits
of their hard work by virtue of belonging to the ‘general’ category. Sometimes these children who belong to the backward classes do
not even deserve and still possess the necessary merit as against a
child who studied very hard for years to get a seat, thereby snatching
away that seat just because they come from a particular caste,
for which our government provides reservation.
When the then HRD minister Mr. Arjun Singh introduced 27.5% reservation
for OBC in centrally funded educational institutes including IIMs and
IITs a petition was moved to the President and the Prime Minister
stating that such a reservation will take India back from where she is
today. Further “everyone understands the need for all sections of
the Indian Society to get an opportunity to be a part of this economy
but reservation based on caste is not an answer to this. These policies
have been in India since the last 50 years and they have failed to meet
their objectives. The government should go into the reasons of the
failure. Many students don’t make it to the institutes because of the
economic reasons and those who do not fall in the reservation criteria
do not get a fair opportunity too”.
Far too many lapses in our law is also adding to the confusion. As per our law, you can convert to another religion from your religion by birth. But you cannot change your caste. For example, by birth I'm a Brahmin and let us assume I'm converting myself to some other religion. I can then say I belong to that particular religion, but my caste will remain as Brahmin forever... Do you think this makes any sense??? The same applies to my children as well as by birth they will be Brahmin (because of my caste)...
Now, recent Supreme Court judgement regarding women entering Sabarimala temple was based on the interpretation of "discrimination" to women (as per the law and the Constitution) and thus the judgement was passed. If our law says that the children will take after the religion and caste of the father and not mother (in case of inter-caste/inter-religion marriage), isn't that a discrimination to women? Law is totally confusing in this scenario... In January 2012, Supreme Court dismissed the decision of Gujarat High Court and Scrutiny Committee (Civil Appeal No.654 - Rameshbhai Dabhai Naika vs State of Gujarat & others) but didn't pass a clear cut verdict. Rather directed the Scrutiny Committee to further examine the documentary evidence carefully and pass a new judgement. Why such a disparity in interpretation of the law between HC and SC? Isn't it because the law itself is vague in its definition?
We have written the laws and Constitution right after Independence but never bothered to revisit and change it based on the needs and changes of the society (but remember Indian Constitution has 123 amendment bills and 101 amendment acts as of date but the politicians did not bother to visit the reservation clause purely because of the vote bank).
For example, below is the cut-off mark required by IIT-JEE for the year 2017 to get admission into their courses:
- SC - 32%
- ST - 27%
- OBC - 49%
- Others - 81%
Do you really think it's fair that people who do not fall under the 'reservation system' should score 81% in order to get admission whereas a candidate belonging to ST community needs to score only 27%??? With this sort of system based on reservation, what's the incentive for students from SC/ST community to study hard and score more when they know they can get bare minimum marks and even get a job in the Government as they have reservation in jobs too....
What will be the quality of that individual when he graduates from IIT? Now you know why the quality of our engineers and other graduates are well below par compared to world standards. It's not surprising that once world famous IIT, Bombay doesn't even feature in top 500 education institutions in the world.
In my opinion, the best way (if at all you want) of reservation should be based on the economic status of the person and not based on the religion, caste or creed. If, as a country, we provide free education to children till about high school, we don't even need reservation based on economic status as the Government can direct all colleges/universities to simply follow the merit based admission system. By doing this, we can truly become a secular state without any reservation.
Most countries in the world does not have reservation system based on the caste. Very few developing countries follow the reservation system based on caste. Just as information and to understand this topic better, I have given reservation system from some of our neighboring countries below:
NEPAL:
55% - General category
45% - Reserved category
Further divided as sub Quotas (under the reserved category)
33% - Women
27% - Tribals
22% - Madhesi
9% - Dalits
5% - Handicapped
4% - Rural/Backward places.
45% - Reserved category
Further divided as sub Quotas (under the reserved category)
33% - Women
27% - Tribals
22% - Madhesi
9% - Dalits
5% - Handicapped
4% - Rural/Backward places.
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan has quota for ethnicity/tribal areas (indirectly) and gender (10% horizontal for women) in Pakistan Civil Services.
- 7.5% - General Category
- 50% - Punjab
- 19% - Sindh (40% - Urban & 60% - Rural)
- 11.5% - Khyber Pakhtunhwa
- 6% - Balochistan
- 4% - Gilgit-Balistan-Tribal Areas
- 2% - Kashmiri
BANGLADESH:
Bangladesh has 5% reserved quota for tribal's and 10% reserved quota for physically and mentally challenged.
Even in the countries who are economically poor than India, there's no reservation for admission into colleges / universities but only in Civil Services (Government jobs).
- Make education mandatory and free for all till high school
- Propose reservation based on economic status (if at all required)
- Provide opportunity to students to earn while they study, as many families live below poverty line and many doesn't send children to school as they cannot afford education and need an earning member in the family.
Instead of introducing reservations for these defined backward classes what
is required is to bring about revolutionary changes in our education
system at the grass-root level. When proper education is not provided to
children belonging to such categories during the primary stage itself
then on what basis are the reservations provided will help at a later stage? In order to implement above, schools/ colleges/universities should be
owned by the Government or funded and controlled by the Government.
Education is a service to society and cannot be treated as a business.
Currently, reservations are nothing but means to prosper the vote banks. They are hindering the country’s growth, development and
competency in all aspects. On one hand the preamble of our constitution
states that we are a free, democratic and sovereign nation and on the
other hand reservation system is chaining all these aspects into its
clutches. It is creating disparity and differences amongst people.
The constitution lays down that every child has a right to education and
nowhere expresses that any child belonging to a backward class has a
little more of this right than the general category. By reserving one
category against another creates a feeling of division which is now
resulting in a chaos with every small section of the society asking for
it.
Thus reservations are anti-thesis of development and equality. We don’t need reservations based on castes or religion but only to actually provide aid to those who have minimal resources; and merit should be given equal and due importance in admission procedures as well employment opportunities. This way we would be successful in removing caste discrimination and unite the economically rich together in helping the economically poor, irrespective of their castes.
Dr. Ambedkar, who wrote the Indian Constitution with the help of the Constitution Committee, and who also wrote the caste based reservation system, converted himself from being Hindu to Buddhism. How many of us knew about it? What does politicians today do? Use Ambedkar's name and photo to gain votes from the SC/ST and other backward community in the country.
Thus reservations are anti-thesis of development and equality. We don’t need reservations based on castes or religion but only to actually provide aid to those who have minimal resources; and merit should be given equal and due importance in admission procedures as well employment opportunities. This way we would be successful in removing caste discrimination and unite the economically rich together in helping the economically poor, irrespective of their castes.
Dr. Ambedkar, who wrote the Indian Constitution with the help of the Constitution Committee, and who also wrote the caste based reservation system, converted himself from being Hindu to Buddhism. How many of us knew about it? What does politicians today do? Use Ambedkar's name and photo to gain votes from the SC/ST and other backward community in the country.
Reservations on the basis of caste is not fair and unacceptable. In my opinion, in a country with such a long tradition and culture, make education mandatory and free till high school (our Government can very well afford that just by introducing some small measures to control unwanted expenses) and then Government owned/funded colleges/universities should give admission only based on the merit of marks scored by the students and not in any other way. Once people get educated, they will understand and make their own decision about their future and will go on with their ambition without any reservation.
As per the census conducted in 2011, Scheduled Castes (SC) were only 16.60% of the population and Scheduled Tribes (ST) were only 8.60% of the population. So, we have created a reservation system for only about 25% of the population, which is unjust.
In 70 years of independence, if the Government thinks that they couldn't uplift the social and economical condition of the 'backward community', isn't it proof enough that the reservation system is not working and we don't need it anymore?
If you want to know the total number of SC/ST category in every state of India, visit this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scheduled_Tribes_in_India. It is amazing to see a country whose constitution is based on 'secularism' has so many divisions
General public will not protest against this reservation system as majority of the public fall under the category of 'backward community' and it is benefiting them whether it's right or not (a study says only about 30% of Indians fall under the 'open category' and does not get any benefit out of reservation system). Our Government can definitely do the above changes but we all know the real reason why they are so "reserved" in doing so...
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