Some reservations about reservations
Since the UPA alliance came to power, the issue of reservations for the backward castes in the private sector has been raised quite a few times. Some state governments, the latest being Maharashtra, in an overzealous fervour (or pre-election desperation) passed laws requiring such reservations. Without exceptions, they have been forced to backtrack. The reasons are quite clear.
The opponents of this move point out that SC's, ST's, OBC's etc have enjoyed reservations in government since independence. The only result of which has been the perpetuation of vote-bank politics often to farcical levels.
The pro-reservation lobby argues that since the Indian government is progressing towards a free economy and privatization, it is only natural that Private Enterprise should now offer job reservations. The only problem with this argument is that private industry operates, indeed survives, on the basis of profitability and will naturally oppose any measure which forces them to hire sub-standard labour at high costs.
Another argument used is the example of the US and it's equal opportunity affirmative action laws. This example is totally wrong and misleading. For one, US laws do not require a company/government department to hire a certain percentage of it's employees from a certain group. The hiring is supposed to be done only on the basis of merit. The laws only protect people from discrimination. ie. they disallow employers from rejecting, not promoting or in any other way discouraging prospective employees on the basis of race, religion etc. Nowhere will a private US company hire/promote a less qualified person over a more qualified one because of his skin color or ethnicity or because they want to fill some quota.
The fact of the matter is reservations only treat the symptoms, not the disease. People think that the disease India suffered from, since medieval times, was the total domination of the upper castes in all walk of life. This is not correct. The disease India suffered from, was the automatic granting of priviledges to a certain people on the basis of their being born into certain castes, whether he/she was worthy of enjoying such priviledges or not. This system was responsible for the weakening of the nation and played a large part in condemning our nation to British slavery. The reservations, under the guise of helping the underpriviledged classes, have just reversed this system. Today, anybody who is born in an SC or ST family enjoys priviledges in education and government jobs, whether he/she deserves it or not. Thus we have replaced one nepotic and disastrous system by another. If our history has taught us anything, it is that when any criterion other than merit is used to evaluate professionals and people entrusted with power and responsibility, it leads to disaster. One can only hope that India pulls itself out of this disastrous path she has embarked on and gets on the path to a meritocracy.
The opponents of this move point out that SC's, ST's, OBC's etc have enjoyed reservations in government since independence. The only result of which has been the perpetuation of vote-bank politics often to farcical levels.
The pro-reservation lobby argues that since the Indian government is progressing towards a free economy and privatization, it is only natural that Private Enterprise should now offer job reservations. The only problem with this argument is that private industry operates, indeed survives, on the basis of profitability and will naturally oppose any measure which forces them to hire sub-standard labour at high costs.
Another argument used is the example of the US and it's equal opportunity affirmative action laws. This example is totally wrong and misleading. For one, US laws do not require a company/government department to hire a certain percentage of it's employees from a certain group. The hiring is supposed to be done only on the basis of merit. The laws only protect people from discrimination. ie. they disallow employers from rejecting, not promoting or in any other way discouraging prospective employees on the basis of race, religion etc. Nowhere will a private US company hire/promote a less qualified person over a more qualified one because of his skin color or ethnicity or because they want to fill some quota.
The fact of the matter is reservations only treat the symptoms, not the disease. People think that the disease India suffered from, since medieval times, was the total domination of the upper castes in all walk of life. This is not correct. The disease India suffered from, was the automatic granting of priviledges to a certain people on the basis of their being born into certain castes, whether he/she was worthy of enjoying such priviledges or not. This system was responsible for the weakening of the nation and played a large part in condemning our nation to British slavery. The reservations, under the guise of helping the underpriviledged classes, have just reversed this system. Today, anybody who is born in an SC or ST family enjoys priviledges in education and government jobs, whether he/she deserves it or not. Thus we have replaced one nepotic and disastrous system by another. If our history has taught us anything, it is that when any criterion other than merit is used to evaluate professionals and people entrusted with power and responsibility, it leads to disaster. One can only hope that India pulls itself out of this disastrous path she has embarked on and gets on the path to a meritocracy.
posted by Avinash | 9:14 PM
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