Reservation in India: Need of the time

From quite some time i am observing our society which is day by day becoming more pro-active and less resilience, its more like a fashion to speak against. One that thing is Reservation. So here i would like to put some light on neglected part of this issue which is all together buried in the deep soil that is: SOCIAL JUSTICE. Which our young generation, who is protesting against the reservation, is not realizing and seeing this time. I think we should also see the other side of the coin

I really appreciate that people (May be driven by self consciousness or other) have start taking initiative and some how start contributing to the society in one way or other. Actually in democracy like us (INDIA), discussion is always fruitful to formulate a policy which is well balanced and designed after keeping the pros and cons in mind. When people discuss, it always happen that some good ideas come into the picture, which is beneficial for all.

I respect the feeling of all those, who are against the reservation, in ideal society where all the persons are equal, reservation has no meaning. But here the thread lies, our society is not equal, it is economically and socially divided. There are lot many people who still have nothing, in fact i think we all know and generally ignore this fact in daily life that 33 % population of our country still lives below poverty line(less then 1 $ a day), 20 % people are utilizing mote than 80 % of resource and rest 80 % people are utilizing less than 20 % of resources. In fact 20% of our national wealth is in the hand of just few hundred people, who represent just 0.001% of population. Here the issue of social justice comes into the picture. Which says that every proud nation has the responsibility to uplift its weaker section of society and we all are the part of Nation, isn't it. The Nation’s progress is totally judge by the resources that its poorest person has. We can’t be a developed country by having just 20% rich people; the benefit of modern society should reach to every individual. I am very much confident that everyone reading this blog will agree with me on this point. Further, I am confident that all will agree that this section should be provided the subsidy (in other words concession or reservation) so that they uplift themselves and become more competitive. At the same time I also realize that some of you may not agree with the way this is implemented but all will agree that the motive behind reservation/concession which is indeed very +ve.

Actually in democratic society like India we can not follow the “Jungle Rule” which says that only those people can survive which are stronger and competitive, less competitive people has to suffer. We can’t apply same principle in the society, govt. provide reservation to physically disable people keeping this view in mind. Similarly in the case where society is divided we must have to find some way to normalize it.

We all agree that support should be provided to poor people & we say that poverty has no caste. We all agree for reservation should be based on economic basis. isn’t it ?? Means in principle we are in support of reservation (we may be disagree with the way to implement it) this is what I want you all people to realize. But you see Govt. has no way to determine that who is poor and who is rich. Only 2% of our population is in income tax net!!! Means 98 % people can legally claim that they are economically weaker. Above all getting a fake income certificate is much easier then getting a fake caste certificate? Perhaps caste base reservation is the easiest way to provide immediate relief to the weaker section of society. I also agree that it is not a long term solution. But still I would say until and unless we do not have sound system in place we have to continue on our current policy. Otherwise how these people can be uplifted??

We must also realize that at the time of independence we have some of the most visionary leaders of the world who have suggested reservation as the way to uplift weaker section of society. Because they realize that castes are the reality in India and most of the poor people belongs to particular castes. They propose caste base reservation. I agree that it is very sad that even after 6 decade we have to continue the reservation based on caste but still if society has not been normalized we have to continue (well, how can we forget the big fact that from last 5000 year (from when our caste system is in place), these people are suffering. It will take time to normalize. May be 100 years or more, its just 60 year.)

In ideal society, it’s always happen that capable people help less capable people even on his/her interest!! And because we do not have any other effective system in place we should welcome any mean who helps them even if it is caste based reservation!! As a developing country don't we (India as a country) gets concession from developed countries in WTO talks based on the same ground that we are less capable and we need some time to build competency.

Actually, the whole scenario, which going on today, is actually the way in which our generation thinks. That is; to make decision fast, implement it faster and further have result faster. But whenever revolution takes place it all together a different story. It takes time to reach at some decision (especially in democracy where consensus is must), implementation further takes time and off course we have to be patience for the result. It is only 6 decade that our great nation got independence; we need to give time and our support so that they can uplift themselves to such a height that we people feel competitive to them!!

But at the same time I would also like to add that this topic is very subjective, I m not against to the people who either supporting the cause of reservation or against it. I do not want to make it as a topic of debate, but surely want that some serious discussion should be held country wide, which aims towards finding some WIN -WIN solution to this problem and which is practical to realize. I think that we should continue with the current policy with below checks:

1) More fund to primary and secondary education
2) Restrict reservation to needy in backward classes, creamy layer should be excluded all together. Like IAS & IPS sibling to not need it.
3) An authority which will take care of issue concerning this matter must be in place which reviews the whole policy time to time say each 5 year.
4) We can start with current policy but it should ultimately lead towards to make a policy so that benefits of reservation reach only to needy.
5) create more aware ness among the reserve category itself so that they can take full advantage of the benefits, it has been seen due to lack of awareness truly needy person does not get benefits.

At the last I would like to add that we should listen to others, and be open to their perception and thought, thereby getting a larger picture & a far more objective view.