Vitness Leadership Summit 2018

All India Political Parties

Meet
Revisiting India’s Reservation Policies.

Aaron Mirza Rohith Santosh Harsh Raj

(Speaker) (Deputy Speaker) (Scribe)
Note from the Executive Board

It is indeed a great honour to welcome you all to the AIPPM at VITness Leadership
Summit 2018. I congratulate you on your decision for being part of the AIPPM. The
Executive Board will leave no stone unturned to assure quality debate in the
committee and the crisis situations will definitely test your intuitive and will furt her
lead to development of your analytical skills.

It has been observed that AIPPM is not simulated too often in the south Indian Debating
circuit. Considering this, the agendas have been chosen with special reference to the
present developments in Indian Politics to ease out the research and facilitate debate.
We have tried to make the background guide simple and as informative as a background
guide needs to be. We’re expecting that the members come up with good solutions to the
problems, not those which have been proposed earlier. Think of the problem as your own,
try to think from the point of view of a responsible politician and have a constructive
approach. AIPPM is a technically sound committee, but we will keep some room to
make the committee simple, fun and productive.
The marking scheme will be declared in the beginning of the committee so as to
maintain transparency and facilitate debate.
Reuters, Government Reports, UN reports shall be considered as credential proofs in
committee while any further reports from Regional/International News Agencies shall
be considered as persuasive proof.
On a very serious note, the members are requested to refrain from using internet during
the committee sessions. Members found using Internet will be disqualified from getting
any awards without any second thoughts.
We expect to see a productive session from the delegates.
Read the background guide thoroughly and research well. Good Luck!
Present form of reservation for SC/ST and OBC
Article 16(4) of the Constitution enables provision of reservation to Backward
Class of citizens, who are not adequately represented in the State. Reservation is
provided to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward
Classes (OBCs) through executive instructions issued from time to time, which
has force of law, as held by the Supreme Court in Indira Sawhney case.
As per extant instructions, reservation is provided to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled
Tribes and Other Backward Classes at the rate of 15%, 7.5% and 27%,
respectively, in case of direct recruitment on all-India basis by open competition.
In case of direct recruitment on all-India basis otherwise than by open
competition, the percentage fixed is 16.66%, 7.5% and 25.84%, respectively.
As per information received from 71 Ministries/Departments, the
representation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward
Classes in the posts and services under the Central Government as on
01.01.2014 is 17.35%, 8.38% and 19.28%, respectively.

What are the main intentions behind reservations/quotas?

People from reserved categories face many disadvantages in going to school or

getting a job today. Reservation is a useful tool to level the playing field. This
is also necessary because these groups have been historically deprived of
education, skills, and access to other means of economic mobility and they
suddenly cannot start competing with those from groups who have had access
to these means for centuries.
Social transformation and building of economic and cultural capital takes time
to be passed on from one generation to another. Children who grew up in a
dominant caste household are often encouraged, supported, and helped to
succeed by other members of their caste groups, while reserved category
students rarely have such networks to draw on.
 It is also worth noting that many reserved candidates have reached schools and
jobs in spite of economic and social disadvantage as well as overt exclusion
and discrimination. Because they have succeeded in the face of adversity, they
bring a different and desirable kind of merit to a school or workplace. Hence,
reservation is necessary for further push.
Reservation is a policy tool that aims to ensure representation of all social
groups in positions of power. When people from all social groups are
represented in government, higher education, and in business, it is less likely
that traditionally marginalized groups will continue to be denied fundamental
rights and access to their fair share of society’s resources.
Also, reservation is provided to only a few groups like Dalits, backward Muslims,
and Adivasis as they face social discrimination and exclusion that people from
general caste backgrounds do not face.

History Of Reservation System

The reservation system in India dates back to 2nd century B.C. where the upper
class enjoyed certain added privileges.
A caste-based reservation system was originally thought of by William Hunter
and Jyotirao Phule in 1882.
 The reservation system that exists today was introduced in 1933 when British
Prime-Minister Ramsay Macdonald presented the ‘Communal Award’.
This made a provision for separate electorates for Muslims, Sikhs, Indian
Christians, Anglo-Indians, Europeans and the Dalits.
This system was opposed by Mahatma Gandhi while B.R. Ambedkar
supported it.
To counter this situation Poona Pact was signed, according to which country would
have a single Hindu electorate, with seats reserved for Dalits.
In 1990s the recommendations of the Mandal Commission were implemented in
government jobs
 Arguments for Reservation

The caste-based reservation cannot be claimed to be completely irrelevant as even

today, the lower class is exploited and discriminated against after 62 years of the
abolishment of untouchability as is evident in the case of Rohith Vemula.
Due to historical negligence caste based reservation are a political necessity in
India.
Affirmative Action has helped many backward communities in getting education
and jobs, which were denied them since long.
Though Meritocracy is important aspect, but is meaningless without equality.
To the great extent caste based reservation reduced the gap between upper and
lower castes.
A study to measure the impact of reservations on efficiency, concluded that
reservations have not hampered the efficiency of administration, rather they
have enhanced quality.
The example of the Indian railways proves that where SC/ST employees are more
in number, the results have been better.

Arguments against Reservation

 Many people of lower castes have stepped up the social ladder and are now on
an equal footing with the ‘general’ population.
On the other hand, many upper castes are still suffering from poverty and illiteracy.
The present reservation system can harm the economic structure of the country as
it could bring down the efficiency of its labour.
Caste based reservation is one of the many issues which may develop into
communal riots.
Many times economically sound people enjoyed the benefits caste based
reservation, leaving aside real needy people.
Recent Agitations

Recent agitations by the Patels/Patidars in Gujarat, the Marathas in

Maharashtra and the Jats in Haryana demanding inclusion in the list of Socially
and Educationally Backward Classes (SEdBCs)
These are dominant castes whose members are major landowners in their
states.
The national and state backward class commissions have found that these
communities are not socially and educationally backward and not inadequately
represented in the services.

Concerns

Castes that should be actually benefitted are not being benefitted, and the others
are reaping the benefits of the reservation system.
Today, the reservation system has just become a tool for politicians to gain vote
banks.
The Jat agitation in Haryana resulted in several deaths, cancelation of hundreds
of trains, and the loss of many working days in schools and workplaces across
Haryana.
One community after another will start demanding reservations due to the
success of others.
Conclusion

In Ashok Kumar Thakur v. Union of India, Justice Ravindran opined that

when more people aspire for backwardness instead of forwardness, the
Country itself stagnates.
If we would demand more and more backwardness, then it is obvious we cannot
move forward, and our progress would ultimately get stagnant.
The idea of reservation policy should be maintained, and the actual backward
classes who are in real and not fiction denied access to education, job
opportunities etc be benefitted.
A CASE STUDY TO UNDERSTAND THE DEMAND OF QUOTA FOR
JAT ,PATEL AND MARATHAS:

Affirmative action policies in India have consistently attracted outrage. Communities

such as the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and the Other Backward
Classes (OBCs) have been given the benefit of reservation policies because of thei r
historical marginalisation in the Indian subcontinent.

Reservation policies have been unpopular among the middle classes, but of late,
dominant groups have begun to demand protection for themselves. What does the
state do when groups that have traditionally opposed preferential treatment given to
marginalised groups start asking for such treatment themselves? What is the validity
of their claim to backwardness?

In Haryana, the agitation by Jats, an agrarian middle caste that has been clamouring
for OBC status since the late 1990s, took a particularly fierce and hostile turn in 2016.
Their protests included the blockade of the capital city of Delhi which is surrounded
by Haryana on three sides.

Gujarat was rocked by violent anti-quota agitations in the mid-1980s, and the Patels, a
dominant caste, were at the forefront of this agitation, demanding that the quotas for
SCs/STs be scrapped; they labelled quotas as antimerit and unfair. Since 2015, the
Patels or Patidars have been on the streets, demanding to be classified as OBC; the
movement has occasionally turned violent with damage to public property.

The Marathas, a predominantly landowning caste and a politically and economically

dominant group in the state of Maharashtra, have been demanding to be included in
the OBC category since the 1990s

data from the India Human Development Survey to investigate the basis of these
demands of the Jats, Patels, and Marathas to be classified as Other Backward Classes
in order to access reservations.
Let us take a look at the socio-economic indicators for these dominant groups,
compared to the existing socio economically disadvantaged groups. Do the figures
make a case for reservation or do they tell us otherwise?

In the figures below, the vertical line shows the position of Jats, Marathas and Patels
and the relative location of other caste groups on different indicators.
1. Per capita consumption expenditure (PCCE)

Jats are similar to Haryana Brahmins in terms of how much they spend on goods and
services (giving a rough indication of their income). Compared to all other groups in
the state, including forward castes, consumption expenditure by Jats is significantly
higher.

Marathas have a lower PCCE than Maharashtra Brahmins, but are at the same level as
other forward castes and OBCs and have a significantly higher PCCE than SCs/STs.
The Patels are statistically similar in PCCE to Gujarati Brahmins and forward castes
and are significantly better off than OBCs and SCs/STs in the state.
2. Probability of being considered poor

Jats have a similar poverty incidence to Brahmins and one that is significantly lower
than that of other groups.

Marathas are similar to Brahmins and other forward castes, and are less similar to
OBCs in terms of poverty incidence, but they have a significantly lower poverty
incidence as compared to SCs/STs.
Patidars are similar to Gujarati Brahmins and other forward castes, but have a lower
incidence of poverty as compared to OBCs and SCs/STs in the state.
Conclusions:
The three groups demanding OBC status and, in turn, access to reservations (quotas),
are already closer to the upper castes than to the more disadvantaged groups in their
respective states. Their anxieties seem to be based more on perception than on
empirical evidence.

An overwhelming amount of evidence suggests that these communities are not the
most marginalized in their respective states; additionally, these communities have
consolidated their advantage over the marginalized groups and have narrowed gaps with
the dominant groups in their respective states between 2004 –05 and 2011–12.