When our lawmakers were debating the draft of our Constitution way back in 1947,

two issues were of paramount importance; one was equality for all irrespective of
religion or caste, and the other was to ensure social justice to those who were
traditionally denied.
Untouchability was a major issue and the purpose of reservation was to give the
backward classes an opportunity to access education and subsequently jobs, to bridge
the gap with the remaining classes. That was the basic purpose behind offering
reservation. It must be noted here that the initial tenure of the reservation was for a
limited time only. This was repeatedly extended by successive governments but was
more a consequence of politics than true affirmative action.
This is borne out by the fact that beyond offering basic reservation, very little was
done for the upliftment of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward
classes. Its been 68 years since Independence and we still have large pockets of
communities that have very little access to quality education and therefore have very
little chance to compete with other privileged sections to improve their economic
status.
Over the years, several constitutional amendments have been made to protect the
weaker and underprivileged sections but have failed to bring about the desired results.

18 Constitutional Amendments have been introduced since

Independence aimed at protecting the SC/ST/OBC
categories:

Article 364 5 January 1960: Extended the period of reservation of seats for the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Anglo-Indians in the Lok Sabha and the
State Legislative Assemblies till 1970.
Article 330, 332, 333, and 334 23 January 1970: Discontinued reservation of
seats for the Scheduled Tribes in Nagaland, both in the Lok Sabha and the State
Legislative Assembly and stipulated that not more than one Anglo-Indian could be
nominated by the Governor to any State Legislative Assembly. Extend reservation for
SC/ST and Anglo Indian members in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for another
ten years, i.e. up to 1980.
Article 334 25 January 1980: Extend reservation for SC / ST and nomination of
Anglo Indian members in Parliament and State Assemblies for another ten years i.e.
up to 1990.
Article 330 and 332 16 June 1986: Provide reservation to Scheduled Tribes in
Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assemblies.
Article 332 21 September 1987: Provide reservation to Scheduled Tribes in
Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assemblies.
Article 334 20 Dec 1989: Extend reservation for SC / ST and nomination of Anglo
Indian members in Parliament and State Assemblies for another ten years i.e. up to
2000.
Article 338 12 March 1990: National Commission for Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes formed and its statutory powers specified in the Constitution.
Article 332 5 December 1992: Provide reservation to Scheduled Tribes in Tripura
State Legislative Assembly.
Schedule 9 31 August 1994: Enable continuance of 69% reservation in Tamil
Nadu by including the relevant Tamil Nadu Act under 9th Schedule of the constitution.

Article 16 17 June 1995: A technical amendment to protect reservation to SC/ST

Employees in promotions.
Article 334 25 January 2000: Extend reservation for SC / ST and nomination of
Anglo Indian members in Parliament and State Assemblies for another ten years i.e.
up to 2010.
Article 16 9 June 2000: Protect SC / ST reservation in filling backlog of vacancies.
Article 335 8 September 2000: Permit relaxation of qualifying marks and other
criteria
in
reservation
in
promotion
for
SC
/
ST
candidates.
Article 243M 8 September 2000: Exempt Arunachal Pradesh from reservation for
Scheduled Castes in Panchayati Raj institutions.
Article 16 4 January 2002: A technical amendment to protect Consequential
seniority
in
case
of
promotions
of
SC/ST
Employees.
Article 338 Insertion of Article 338A, 28 September 2003: The National Commission
for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was bifurcated into The National
Commission for Scheduled Castes and The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.
Article 15 20 January 2006: To enable provision of reservation (27%) for other
backward classes (O.B.C.) in government as well as private educational institutions.
Article 334 25 January 2010: To extend the reservation of seats for SCs and STs
in the Lok Sabha and states assemblies from sixty to seventy years.

Have reservations for SC/ST/OBC categories really made a

difference?

Before answering this question one must understand the reasoning behind
reservations. At the time of Indias independence, untouchability against Scheduled
Castes was a major problem that had existed for centuries. The practice of
untouchability accompanied social exclusion for the community and they continued to
exist in isolation from other classes.
The lawmakers while debating the Constitution wanted to correct this evil by creating
a provision to address this social and economic gap. A close study of the Constitution
Articles 14, 15(1), 15 (2), 15 (3), 16 (1), and 16 (2) reveals that the basic objective
was equality for all on the basis of non-discrimination. The word caste was
completely avoided from any reference, however, there was a provision in Article 16
(4) to provide for reservation in favour of backward 5 classes Nothing in this article
shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments
or posts in favour of any backward 5 class of citizens which, in the opinion of the
State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State.
But then again Article 16(1) states There shall be equality of opportunity for all
citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the
State.
There is an inherent contradiction in the Constitution which on one hand offers
equality for all without discrimination, while on the other, offers reservation in jobs
for the backward classes. Article 16(1) speaks of equality of opportunity for all,
without any discrimination on the basis of caste. However, with time all political parties
have exploited this to interpret caste based reservation.
Another aspect of the original Constitution draft was that at the time of framing it, the
concept of reservation was time bound. This has been systematically extended by
political parties with an eye on electoral politics. The objective was that the

government would extend special attention to education and infrastructure to enable

the backward classes to bridge the knowledge gap and therefore, the social and
economic gap with the rest. This unfortunately did not happen and 68 years after
independence, India is far from achieving this goal.

The reality today

The Constitution was written to prevent discrimination of any kind with equal
opportunity for all to improve social, economic and political development. However,
what we see today is a perverse interpretation of what comprises SC/ST and OBC
classes. All communities are now fighting to be included into one of the above
categories
No one will dispute that the first step to remove backwardness and poverty for ALL
classes is education. The next is opportunity. Lets take education first. Today, any
school in an urban city that is providing good quality education has students from ALL
communities. They all have equal opportunity to study and learn, irrespective of their
familys economic status.
On completing school, they all have the same opportunity to sit for a competitive
exam for higher education and the marks earned by each student is independent of
their caste, religion or social status. The best of them get selected and now they begin
to compete through their years of education in their institution. At the end of their
term, the best of them get the best employment opportunity, again, it is independent
of their caste, religion or economic status.
While we are on the subject of education and staying with the above example, how
does caste based reservation come into this equation? And where is the need for it?
One can understand if a student from an economically weaker section who is qualified
but cannot afford the fees of say a good school or college, but this can be easily
addressed by financial scholarships or loans, so where does reservation come into
play as a birth right?
And if reservation must be given based on affirmative action, why should it be
extended through the entire period of education. For the sake of argument, if a student
is given admission through reservation, thats the opportunity for him and beyond
that, his knowledge, interest and aptitude must determine how he fares till the time
he passes out. Why must the student be offered lower marks than others as a
qualifying benchmark?
That said, the problem lies not in education not being extended to weaker sections
but the quality of education being extended to weaker sections. Today, the gap in
quality of education imparted in some of the best schools and those in semi-urban
and rural areas is wide and therefore this creates an unequal opportunity rather than
an equal opportunity. This is about urban-rural divide and not a class divide issue.
State governments get away by quoting mere numbers of schools, students and
teachers without any metrics that reflect on quality. And this is prevalent across
states.
The poor quality of educational infrastructure, especially in government run
institutions in the state, has been a major hindrance to the overall socio-economic
development and opportunity for its people. Education is a state subject and therefore,
all states must take the blame for the poor state of education in schools and colleges.

Besides, poor quality of education delivered through poorly trained teachers,

language remains a major barrier even after 68 years of independence.
Thanks to electoral priorities and chauvinism, all states have promoted their own
languages as the medium of instruction, as a result, todays generation struggles to
communicate when they travel outside their respective states and reduces their
chance for employment. Take the case of A.P and Telangana. Between the two states,
there are over 400 engineering colleges. These churn out large numbers of engineers
each year. Ask top recruiters from any company in any city and they will all confirm
that quality and inability to communicate is the biggest drawback for most of these
engineers. Now the list of engineers passing out is independent of caste, as the
problem is universal. This issue is not restricted to just these two states but applies
to other states as well.
So, what should be the priority for the government to have reservation in
educational institutions or to provide good quality education across the state and
available equally to all? The answer should be obvious.
The same logic extends to the job sector. Do we recruit based on merit or do we
recruit based on reservation? If the objective is to provide employment opportunity
to the SC/ST/OBC categories, then the initial entry level recruitment should suffice.
So why promotions thereafter should be reserved and not earned, based on merit?
It is this loophole that all communities are wanting to exploit for all times to come,
irrespective of an individuals economic status. How and why should an individual from
one of the SC/ST/OBC category, who is well educated and comes from a well-to-do
family, be granted reservation? Would Dr Ambedkar request reservation for self and
family in todays time? The answer is no. The solution lies not in reservation, which
only divides society, but in providing equal opportunity to all.

Conclusion

Therefore, it is absolutely imperative for the government, both central and those of
states, to take responsibility and ensure that the quality of education imparted
improves, in keeping with the demands of a modern society.
Everyone, without exception, must have easy access to free or low cost education.
And based on his or her qualification, interest and aptitude, compete with the rest on
equal terms for a career ahead. This must be the goal and not caste or community
based reservation, into perpetuity. The Constitution provides for equal opportunity
for all and we all have a responsibility to safeguard this. It is time for all of us to
revisit the need for reservation, which is now being subject to misuse.