RESERVATION : AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROGRAM THAT RESERVES 0.05% OF JOBS FOR PROTECTIVE DISCRIMINATION OUT OF A WORKING FORCE ~478 MILLION INDIANS.

In India reservation was brought to provide opportunity to traditionally underrepresented and dis-privileged or oppressed communities to get higher education and noticeable life. But with due time it has become anti-national policy for the people of higher caste. They started protesting against it. I just wanted to ask them a simple question that if they were given this reservation after the independence then would it be possible for the people who are presently given reservation to protest against them like they are doing. The  answer is simply “NO”. To protest against reservation for these people would have been like fighting for another independence.  I am sorry  but this is the ”TRUTH”.  As we all know reservation policy was basically implemented in 1982. So even after 33yrs of reservation policy  upper caste are very much capable of challenging this policy then what difference has it made in the life of so called underprivileged and oppressed.

In democratic country like India the idea of reservation was set up to provide the basic need to the underprivileged  which will create equality and provide opportunity to access the resources irrespective of caste, creed, gender, class and economic disparities but many arguments came in the way in which few can be listed as:

# It is the spurious ploy of merits.

#Reservation in elite institution will degrade the institute’s quality.

# Reservation should be based on economic criteria.

# Reservation promotes further caste-ism.

Now the thing  I wanted you all to know that first of all measurement of merit is totally based on academic performances but when the oppressed with the handful of resources make advances into this aspect the focus changed to performance and later on “personal potential”. This is nothing but a myth that reservation in elite institution will degrade the institute’s quality by less competitive performance by the reserved students. In a report it was found that in the AIIMS and IIT entrance examinations, the difference between the toppers in open and reserved category is large of the order to 20 to 30% . However, when it comes to the last successful candidate in either lists, the difference narrows down to about half of it. If reservation should be based on economic criteria rather than caste system then also it will not be able to change the attitude of Indian society and bridge the gap between the upper caste and lower caste. It will be more easy for them to show themselves an economically backward on papers. I questioned that how much percentage among the lower caste is economically forward and socially well established and how much percentage among  the upper caste is economically backward and socially challenged. It is very clear that reservations are meant to address something more than economic corruption and cannot be viewed as counters to poverty. Further, this is not true that reservation promotes further casteism. The policy of reservations is recognition of the brutal reality of casteism . Protective discrimination is something more, in the sense that it addresses individuals who are dis-privileged in more than one category like social, economical, psychological, gender etc.

Now the bothering thing is that why the upper caste people are showing this much of anger and agitation against reservation which is just a mode to avoid social unrest based on casteism. Why they are not more interested in protesting against lack of healthcare facilities, work to improve technology, management in rural areas etc. Are they fearing that reservation will limit their share of future generations of their families and caste or are they fear that resources will only be accessible to those who have suffered centuries of oppression and contemptuous ?