IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT RESERVATION
• RESEVATION WAS NOT STARTED BY “VOTE-HUNGRY POLITICIANS”
• RESERVATION WAS NOT “INVENTED BY THE DIVIDE AND RULE POLICY OF THE BRITISH”
• RESERVATION CAME INTO EXISTENCE IN PENINSULAR INDIA WELL BEFORE INDEPENDENCE
RESERVATION WAS STARTED MAINLY ON INITIATIVE OF INDIAN MAHARAJAS AND AN INDIAN PARTY IN RESPONSE TO SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AGAINST BRAHMIN AND OTHER UPPER CASTE MONOPOLY IN ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNANCE
IT WAS STARTED
in 1902 in Kolhapur by its Maharaja
in May 1921 in Mysore by its Maharaja
in Sept 1921 in the Madras Presidency — which inter alia included
Andhra Pradesh — by the Justice Party Government
in 1931 in Bombay Presidency
in 1935 in Travancore by its Maharaja
followed by Cochin by its Maharaja
IT COVERED communities now
classified as Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Socially and Educationally Backward
Classes (BCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs)
• AT THE NATIONAL / CENTRAL LEVEL ALSO RESERVATION WAS STARTED
BEFORE INDEPENDENCE
In 1943, it was started for SCs by the initiative of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar as Member, Viceroy’s Executive Council
On Independence, in 1947, it was extended to Scheduled Tribes (STs)
Unfortunately, BCs missed the bus
at that time and were unconstitutionally made to wait till 1990 when the
combined efforts of Prime Minister VP Singh, Welfare Minister Ram Vilas Paswan,
and Welfare Ministry Secretary P.S. Krishnan overcame all obstacles and started
it.
WHY PATH OF RESERVATION BECAME
INEVITABLE IN INDIA?
• Reservation became inevitable BECAUSE the caste system and the upper castes denied access to education for SCs and other “lower” castes in latter 19th century by various means including physical violence against Dalit Children going to school, tearing their books,
beating them up and driving them back home in different parts of India as recorded by the Hunter Commission 1882
— There is record that British educationists and administrators found Dalits to be the best students but were afraid of actively promoting their education which would have got them entry into the services and higher services on merit, because of fear of adverse upper caste reaction
— This in modern times (apart
from centuries-old economic, educational and other deprivations of the
“untouchable” and other “low” castes) led to artificial monopoly of upper
castes in governance, administration, education, higher education, etc.
FOR WHOM CONSTITUTION PROVIDES
RESERVATION AND FOR WHOM NOT?
• THE CONSTITUTION PROVIDES RESERVATION FOR ONLY THREE SOCIAL CLASSES
(a) SCHEDULED CASTES (SCs), now popularly known as Dalits
(b) SCHEDULED TRIBES (STs), now popularly known as Adivasis
(c) SOCIALLY AND EDUCATIONALLY BACKWARD CLASSES (not Socially and Economically Backward Classes as trotted out by many scholars and learned TV anchors and commentators with self-assurance matching ignorance) – referred to in different States as Socially and Educationally Backward Classes or as OTHER BACKWARD CLASSES or as BACKWARD CLASSES (BCs).
• CONSTITUTION DOES NOT PROVIDE AND DOES NOT PERMIT RESERVATION FOR THE POOR OR THE SPURIOUS “ECONOMICALLY BACKWARD CLASSES”
no such class is recognized by the Constitution.
Some Governments have coined this
term to make it look like a Constitutional category
TRUE PURPOSE OF RESERVATION
• RESERVATION IS NOT A POVERTY REMOVAL OR POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMME
• RESERVATION IS NOT A PROGRAMME FOR REMOVAL OF UNEMPLOYMENT
• IT WAS INSTITUTED FOR REMOVAL OF
– IMBALANCE IN GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
– MONOPOLY OF A FEW CASTES
ACCOUNTING FOR MINORITY OF POPULATION AND EXCLUSION OF CASTES ACCOUNTING FOR
THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION
• WITH COMMENCEMENT OF THE
CONSTITUTION, RESERVATION ALSO BECAME AN INTEGRATL PART OF THE BASIC STRUCTURE
OF MEASURES REQUIRED FOR ELIMINATION OF THE INHERITED STRUCTURE OF INEQUALITY,
BASED ON CASTE-WITH- “UNTOUCHABILITY” AND FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOCIAL
EQUALITY, WHICH IS A BASIC FEATURE OF THE CONSTITUTION.
BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE — WRONG TO BLAME RESERVATION FOR UNEMPLOYMENT OF SACs
• THE NUMBER OF EDUCATED UMEMPLOYED REGISTERED IN EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES IN ALL INDIA (2009) WAS 3,81,52000.
• THE NUMBER OF POSTS THAT CAN BE FILLED UP IN CENTRAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS AND QUASI-CENTRAL AND QUASI-STATE GOVERNMENT SECTOR AND LOCAL BODIES THROUGH RESERVATION IN PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT IS A MERE 262120 (If Reservation is Properly Implemented).
• IF ALL RESERVATION IS ABOLISHED, as unjustly and unrealistically demanded by some misguided persons,
IT WILL MAKE NO DIFFERENCE TO THE UNEMPLOYMENT SITUATION
FOR,
• RESERVATION IS NOT THE CAUSE OF WIDESPREAD UNEMPLOYMENT
• FURTHER, IN THE MUCH LARGER PRIVATE SECTOR OF EMPLOYMENT AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION WHERE THERE IS NO RESERVATION THE WHOLE FIELD IS MOSTLY OCCUPIED BY SACs
• UNEMPLOYMENT exists among ‘GENERAL COMMUNITIES”
as well as among SCs, STs and BCs
• THE SOLUTION FOR UNEMPLOYMENT must be brought about through MACRO- ECONOMIC AND OTHER MEASURES UNCONNECTED WITH RESERVATION
POVERTY MUST BE TACKLED BY VARIOUS MEASURES — THEY DO NOT REQUIRE TAMPERING WITH RESERVATION
• POVERTY exists MUCH MORE among SCs, STs and BCs than among THE SOCIALLY ADVANCED CASTES (SACs)
— Plenty of Data available to show this.
• THE SOLUTION FOR REMOVAL OF POVERTY has to be sought through
VARIOUS MEASURES WHICH DO NOT REQUIRE TAMPERING WITH RESERVATION
NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE MEASURES FOR SC, ST, AND BC
AND SCHOLARSHIPS AND EDUCATIONAL LOANS FOR OTHER POOR
• RESERVATION is NOT the TOTAL SOLUTION for the DEPRIVATIONS SUFFERED BY SC, ST and BC
— A COMPREHENSIVE PACKAGE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE MEASURES must be undertaken FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS OF SCs, STs and BCs and bringing them to THE LEVEL OF EQUALITY with SACs in EVERY PARAMETER — ECONOMIC, EDUCATIONAL, HEALTH-AND-NUTRITION-RELATED, HOUSING AND RESIDENTIAL AREAS FACILITIES-RELATED ETC.
• RESERVATION is ONLY ONE ITEM in that comprehensive package
• THIS COMPREHENSIVE PACKAGE HAS NOT BEEN HOLISTICALLY UNDERTAKEN AND SINCERELY IMPLEMENTED — that is why CONDITIONS OF SC, ST, BC CONTINUES TO BE MISERABLE
• THERE ARE INDIVIDUALS SUFFERING FROM POVERTY AMONG SOCIALLY ADVANCED CASTES (though much less than among SC, ST, and BC)
• SAC POOR DESERVE SYMPATHY AND HELP — THE SOLUTION FOR THEM IS NOT THEIR INCLUSION IN THE LIST OF BCs — WHICH SOME OF THEM ARE DEMANDING — AND WHICH IS JUST IMPOSSIBLE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION AND IN LIGHT OF HISTORICAL AND CURRENT SOCIAL REALITIES
• THE SOLUTION FOR THE GENUINELY POOR among the SACs is to provide SCHOLARSHIPS AND EDUCATIONAL LOANS so that no child or youth has to drop out of education at any stage for financial incapacity.
PEACEFULLY AND DEMOCRATICALLY OPPOSE WRONG INCLUSIONS in SC, ST and BC LISTS
• SCs, STs and BCs SHOULD COME TOGETHER to OPPOSE ANY WRONGFUL INCLUSION OF ANY COMMUNITY PEACEFULLY AND DEMOCRATICALLY IN THE LIST OF BCs, OR SCs OR STs AND ANY PROPOSAL OR DEMAND FOR SUCH WRONGFUL INCLUSION
Any WRONGFUL INCLUSION OF A SOCIALLY ADVANCED CASTE IN any of these LISTS WILL DEPRIVE GENUINE BCs, STs and SCs OF large part of POSTS AND SEATS WHICH SHOULD GO TO SCs, STs and BCs.
THEY SHOULD DO THIS WITHOUT ANY HATRED OR ILL-WILL TOWARDS ANY CASTE BUT ONLY TOTAL OPPOSITION TO THE HARMFUL CASTE SYSTEM, WHICH IS HARMFUL TO THE DEPRIVED SOCIAL CLASSES AND ALSO HARMFUL TO THE NATION AS A WHOLE
POINTS ON WHICH SC, ST AND BC CAN
JOINTLY, MASSIVELY, DEMOCRATICALLY, PEACEFULLY AND WITHOUT THREATS, MOVE
CENTRAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS ARE:-
Governments should, without dithering and equivocation, firmly declare
that no Socially Advanced Caste will be included in BC Lists
that no such demand will be entertained
that there is no question of changing the criteria for listing SCs, STs and BCs which are based on the Constitution and socio-historical and still-current realities
that there is no question of changing the well-thought-out Constitutional and statutory procedures laid down and followed since long relating to SCs, STs and BCs
Governments should consistently follow these declarations without being swayed by electoral considerations
Governments should holistically undertake and sincerely and efficiently implement the full gamut of Social Justice measures required for bringing about Equality of SCs, STs and BCs with SACs in all parameters of development and welfare in all fields, such as economic; educational at all levels; health, nutrition and infant and child survival-related; housing and residential areas facilities-related, etc., including significantly the Special Component Plan for SCs (SCP) and Tribal sub-Plan (TsP), leading to the annihilation of the caste system
Governments should, along with the above, help the genuinely poor among SACs with scholarships and educational loans to save them from having to drop out from education at any stage only for want of financial capacity, taking care that the genuinely poor are properly identified without scope for false poverty certificates
Governments should incorporate,
in the educational syllabus at all levels and training syllabus for all
All-India, Central and State Services, clear and unbiased socio-historical
facts of India and the sufferings imposed on Dalits, Adivasis and BCs over the
centuries of history and decades of our Independence to this day on account of
the caste system-with-“Untouchability” in all its ramifications.
NEED FOR UNDERSTANDING HISTORICAL
FACTS
• PEOPLE OF SOCIALLY ADVANCED CASTES, Especially YOUTH SHOULD UNDERSTAND
Socio-historical facts of India
The sufferings imposed on Dalits, Adivasis and Backward Classes over the centuries of our history and decades of our independence
And the paramount need to build harmony among all classes and castes based on Equality and elimination of inherited Inequalities, leading to the annihilation of the caste system
AND COOPERATE IN THE COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE MEASURES INCLUDING RESERVATION FOR SC, ST AND BC
so that we completely solve the historically inherited problem of discriminations and inequalities based on the caste system-with-“Untouchability” and create a situation that will facilitate the annihilation of the caste system which is
A MILLSTONE ROUND OUR COLLECTIVE SOCIAL NECK HAMPERING INDIA’S OPTIMAL PROGRESS AND SHOULD REALIZE THAT NOBODY CAN WISH AWAY OR DO AWAY WITH RESERVATION UNTIL AFTER
the disappearance of “Untouchability” in all its ramifications in the case of SCs the disappearance of isolation under vulnerable conditions in the case of STs the disappearance of social backwardness in the case of BCs the SCs, STs and BCs as a whole and each of their castes and tribes reach a level of presence in employment at every level including the highest level and education at every level including the highest level, comparable to their proportion in population the SCs, STs and BCs as a whole and each of their castes and tribes are made capable, though comprehensive Social Justice measures, of securing, in open competition, posts at every level including the highest level and seats in education at every level including the highest level, comparable to their proportion in the population the SCs, STs and BCs as a whole and each of their castes and tribes are enabled, through comprehensive Social Justice measures, to reach the level of Equality with SACs in all parameters of development, life and welfare.
This is the answer to the oft-repeated question “HOW LONG RESERVATION?”
The Real Question is “HOW LONG UNTOUCHABILITY, ISOLATION AND INEQUALITY?”
The Answer is with those who occupy the commanding heights of Governments, higher administration and governance, public and private institutions, academia, and media (print as well as visual), who mostly belong to SACs
• IF MISGUIDED ELEMENTS AMONG THEM TRY TO BLOCK THE PROGRESS OF SC, ST AND BC towards EQUALITY AND ERUPT INTO AGITATIONS AS THEY HAVE BEEN DOING PERIODICALLY, IT WILL CREATE CONTINUOUS HOSTILITY BETWEEN THE TWO, and HAMPER INDIA’S OPTIMAL PROGRESS which is essential to remove widespread unemployment and poverty
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