I am
against the caste system. I have always
felt outraged about such discrimination among human beings, and felt ashamed
that it is prevalent in the country of my birth. I will be really happy to see
a day when there is no discrimination at all on the basis of caste, religion or
any such factors that arise from the accident of birth.
Thankfully,
my parents did not add the caste as a tail to my name. I have always felt proud
that my name does not convey allegiance to any caste. I also felt proud when as
a young student I succeeded in convincing my grandmother, for the first time, to
let women of some other castes to draw water from the well, at our home.
In spite
of all such feelings against the concept of caste, I do understand the
realities of my country, and how deeply entrenched the caste system is. Therefore, I do believe the affirmative support
granted by our Constitution, to the people of less privileged castes is the
only pragmatic strategy to bring some parity among our people. The economic
reservation cannot replace the caste based reservation so easily because in India
caste is not merely an economic factor. It has much more implication- social,
political and economic, in India. Therefore, economic reservation will not
allow people from the castes that were oppressed for centuries, to come up to
the level of members of more fortunate castes.
Now, about
the policy of caste based reservation for promotion. I am not as convinced
about the need for it as I am convinced about the need for reservation in
employment and education. Once a person is appointed to a post, irrespective of
the source of such appointment, his/her growth should solely depend on the performance
at the job. Maybe we should ensure that one’s caste or other status does not
cause prejudice against him/her, in matters of promotion. In other words, equal
opportunity for promotion should be available to all employees.
However,
after considering various aspects of the matter, the Supreme Court of India had
validated such a policy with certain conditions that I believe to be fair and
reasonable. However, the Parliament in its wisdom is now trying to nullify
those conditions stipulated by the Supreme Court. I am against such a step by Indian
Parliament.
This
post is not about policy of reservations in promotions, and therefore, I am not
going into details of the SC verdict or merits of Parliament’s effort towards
Constitutional amendment. This one is about some myths beings spread deliberately
or otherwise, by those who oppose the caste based reservations. Apart from the generic arguments like vote
bank politics, divisive politics etc. the only argument of substance I heard
against the reservation system is about merit.
In the
narrowest sense of merit, it does get affected by any kind of reservation. Therefore,
replacing caste based reservation with economic reservation will change
nothing. However, this argument of merit being affected by reservation will stand
the test of logic only when comparing apples to apples. When things are not
equal, one cannot argue for merit based on relative scores alone.
The apostles
of merit do not oppose the differentiation in schools and colleges. There are
schools and schools in our country. Not all schools teach same subjects or
syllabus, and not all of them have the same or comparable standards. To a great extent, so called merit is
determined by the kind of school one attends than any innate quality. Admission
to these different types of schools is also not based on merit or equality, but
other factors.
We
often get to hear comments like, “I will not feel safe to be treated by a
doctor who is a product of reservation system” or “I don’t want to stay in a
building constructed by an Engineer coming out through reservation”. Ask them if they do check whether the doctor
was admitted to MBBS or Engineer to the BE, through a payment seat before availing
the services, they look at you with disbelief written all over their face. So,
it is not about the merit, but about the deep caste prejudice what is causing
such statements!
Now,
let us consider the issue of merit objectively. When an Engineer or Doctor or
any other professional earns the concerned degree, they become eligible to
practice the profession. They become eligible by virtue of passing the
qualifying examination. If the qualifying examination places a cut off mark at
40, 50 or whatever percentage, no one who had scored marks below that cut off
gets a license to practice. So, every person who crosses that cut off and gets the
license to practice is qualified to practice. The fact that one had a better
memory and scored 5 or 10% of marks in the final examination will not make him/her
a better practitioner. Consider the ratio of top rank holders in the respective
exams, among the most successful practitioners of any profession and this
becomes amply clear.
Same is
the case with admission to professional courses. Most of us do not have any
issue when rich parents pay hefty amounts to get seats for their children in
the top professional institutions. We
will not ask the percentage of marks scored by these children, in their
qualifying exams. However, lot of us are again concerned about the quality of
the institutions, if a member of a backward caste gets admission to a premier
institute by virtue of reservation. The reports
about problems being faced by Dalit students even in institutions like AIIMS
and IITs are indeed shocking.
But the
truth again is lost in the rhetoric. No person can get admission into any
professional course without having passed the qualifying examination. That is the
simple truth. Another truth is, because a student scored less or more marks in
the qualifying examination, his or her performance in the professional course
cannot be predicted on that basis alone. Even after getting admission to the
course, the student has to study and pass all the examinations to become
eligible to practice.
To conclude,
so long as a professional had passed the qualifying examination and holds a
genuine degree, I will not seek his/her mark certificate before availing the
services. As far as I know no individual has been given any reservation to
practice a profession, without duly qualifying for the same. That being the
case, using merit as a fig leaf to hide one’s opposition towards caste based
reservation is nothing but pathetic.
Oppose reservation by all means; we
all have freedom to hold our own views and to propagate it. I will also wait
for the day when we can genuinely say that we have moved beyond concepts like
community matrimony dot coms, and are ready to embrace true merit with equal
opportunity. Until then, let us not hide behind merit to oppose the affirmative
actions to bring oppressed classes of people to some semblance of parity, being
undertaken by the state.
