I’ve been watching the debate in India about extension of Governments reservation policy to OBC’s for quite sometime now .
I must confess that I haven’t seen a single authoritative article from any Indian journalist which appears to be fair , holistic , rational and with scientific reason – Indian media has no representation for SC’s and ST’s and a very marginal representation for OBC’s . So more than two third of India’s population has a very marginal representation in Indian media .
Let me use a fair Problem solving method that is used in the Industry - DMAIC ( Define, Measure, Analyse, Implement, Control) to find a solution .
Problem Definition :
What is the problem that India faces ?
Some readily identifiable socially disadvantaged groups are underrepresented and relatively underdeveloped in India. These groups need to be brought to the national mainstream by giving them a fair socio, economic and political share .
Seems fine? If I’m unable to define the problem correctly then I’ll not be able to arrive at a correct solution.
The phrase Readily identifiable and socially disadvantaged is very important . Every country will have poor and disadvantaged people. The special problem with India is that they can be readily identified given India’s castist history and are socially disadvantaged because of past history.
Measure :
What are the ‘Readily identifiable and socially disadvantaged’ groups in India?
As per Government of India :
SC’s and ST’s are easy to identify given their ‘ untouchable status .SC’s constitute about 16% and ST’s about 8% of India’s population. Lowest in social hierarchy in India.
OBC’s ( Other Backward Classes) : These were above SC’s and ST’s in caste hierarchy but below Upper caste and are identified by Government of India. Constitute staggering 45-50% of India’s population. I think they are not readily identifiable as a group but they are socially disadvantaged as identified by Govt of India.
Muslims : Constitute about 14% of India’s population. Various reports suggest that they are equivalent or below OBC’s and even SC’s and ST’s in social parameters. But not all Muslims are socially disadvantaged . In that sense although they are readily identifiable all of them may not be socially disadvantaged.
This is all what we can measure! It is not known as to what their actual share is in private jobs or even current population percentage . Most of the population data is taken from 1931 census of India though Government carries out sampling often.
Analyse :
It is beyond doubt that the social groups that I have talked about do not have a fair representation in Education, Judiciary , Corporate world and Media .The same may not be true about legislative assemblies and the parliament.
How to bring all these groups in national mainstream by giving them fair social ,economic and political share?
The social groups that I have mentioned seem to have different socio economic profile.
Hmm….
I think the only way is to provide these people with right opportunities and skills to take on the world. But the fact remains that most of these communities do not have fair share in education. Education has to be the logical starting point for any social upliftment. Affirmative action seems to be the short term answer .What this will do is provide proportionate representation to youths from these communities to various educational institutes and in politics which can itself bring economic benefits. Yes , but that process is long drawn and furthermore in a country where educational opportunities are limited there is always a vast majority that does not get benefit of these affirmative actions anyway. But aren’t opportunities limited in India anyways? What about vast majority the youths who could not avail of these benefits?
Hmm…. .
seem to have stuck to a dead end now. Even if you do affirmative action it’ll not reach the vast majority to bring about the social transformation that we are talking about. So even if they get fair share look at the proportion of population that we are talking about.
But then this has to do with overall economic growth of the country which is a different issue.
What about vast rural India that’ll be untouched by the affirmative action policy?
Reminds me of a long forgotten story ….
Land Reforms …
The land reforms that were carried out in different states Independent India were only of a notional nature and the benefits never reached the needed although the degree with which these reforms were implemented varied across the states.
Kick starting fresh land reforms with proper practices and checks and balances in place ( so that the land is really transferred to the needy and not go back to the landlords again .This is what happed sadly with Indian land reforms) will really help restore the caste balance in rural India. In fact the caste wars in rural India and birth of Maoist and Naxalites is largely due to the failure of land reforms.
What about Primary education?
Yes. Good quality universal primary education is still not available in rural India . Providing primary education to all the sections of society ( and hence the weaker sections) will reduce the huge social difference that exists among various classes in India.
I would like to emphasize the point that without proper primary education even the benefits of reservation will not reach the needy as those selected through reservation will not be able to compete with general category.
To be continued….
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