A Discriminant Analysis

There have been debates on net neutrality. Net, that has an abysmally low penetration in India. This article is not about the digital divide, but an artificial, deeper and more critical demographic divide.

Following are two articles of the Indian Constitution:

[Art. 29(2)] – There shall be no discrimination against any citizen on the ground of religion, caste race or language, in matter of admission into educational institutes maintained or aided by the State.

[Art. 16(2)] – There shall be no discrimination against any citizen on the ground of religion, caste race or language, in matter of public employment.

Doesn’t it then become clear that the unreserved category is being clearly discriminated against, when they are being given very limited opportunities for education and employment in the name of upliftment of the reserved classes? A very contradicting and illogical article can be found in the constitution, which supposedly ‘takes care’ of this issue.

[Art. 15(4)] – If special provisions are made by the State in favour of members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, other citizens shall not be entitled to impeach the validity of such provisions on the ground that such provisions are discriminatory against them.

So isn’t it quite self-contradictory and dictatorial? You are biased against and you can’t even oppose! Had the people of India been fond of such restrictions, we would all have chosen dictatorship!

Now there has been frequent additions of more and more ‘castes’ into the list of ‘backward’ category. How many have been removed from this list? Didn’t get to hear any community coming out? So either it’s the fact that reservation isn’t helping at all, or it’s an irreversible step taken under political motives to increase vote share. If you remove a community, there goes your vote!

The reservation quota percentage is also, in a similar fashion increasing with the passage of time.

The above two increments: number of communities falling into backward category and the reservation percentage begs the answer to the question: is India becoming increasingly backward that more of it requires more of reservation to thrive?

As it is the skill development and deployment structure on India is on life support, these provisions are only slowly pulling the plug. It’s not saying that certain castes perform lower. Not at all. But it is quite logical, and let’s face it: whenever a reservation system is put into place, the performance benchmark will be lowered. A very visible example is the lowered eligibility cut off scores for employment in public sector or admissions to government colleges and institutes for the reserved categories. Output levels for such organisations are bound to fall.

According to the latest economic data from NSSO, despite more access to education, better household amenities and increased incomes, the economic gap between upper castes and tribal communities continue unchanged. So what purpose is the preferential treatment trying to achieve?

The only feasible and seemingly logical way out is to identify the financially weak and provide financial support to these individuals, not the entire category of people. If a person is say BPL, no matter which category, he/she should be provided education at lower rates. After completing his education, he/she is at an equal level as others, so he/she should not need any quotas for job.

Let there be level playing ground for everyone, irrespective of their caste, race, religion or language. Doesn’t it correspond with what the fundamental principle of equality speaks of?