Income best basis for quotas

Jyeshtha Krushna 13,Kaliyug Varsha 5114

There are a huge number of Brahmins, Kayasths and Rajputs who live below the poverty line, are not adept at businesses and are yet unable to get access to available opportunities, thanks to reservations.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court's order striking down the proposed 4.5 per cent quota reserved for minorities (carved out of the 27 per cent already reserved for the non-creamy layer OBCs) has again opened the debate on reservations and brought into focus the situation of Muslims.

Over the past 50 years, we note how the politics of elections has convinced the Muslims that consequent to each election, things would change dramatically in favour of the community. With a population of close to 160 million, Muslims of India tend to assume that they play a significant role in influencing the formation of governments. During the process of each election, different Muslim leaders loudly proclaim the impact the community would have on the election, and how they would "teach a lesson" to those parties that do not espouse their cause.

Awareness

So obviously there is a trust deficit between the action taken by the government and the perception of the public at large. The fact is that successive governments have not sensitised India on the concept of affirmative action. This is a long and difficult route but minus adequate information, dissemination of accurate statistics, and a broad political consensus, this confusion will remain. Also it is extremely difficult for any government to develop a political consensus in an economy that has limited space. The fact is that there is widespread poverty in India that has moved on to envelop all castes and communities. Granted that there may be poverty amongst some minorities, Dalits and Adivasis, but it cannot be denied that large sections of upper caste Hindus are also singularly poor.

Criterion

There are a huge number of Brahmins, Kayasths and Rajputs who live below the poverty line, are not adept at businesses and are yet unable to get access to available opportunities, thanks to reservations. Therefore, even as there is need for affirmative action perhaps the best mechanism would be to have reservations based on income. This would be the fairest way of distributing limited opportunities, avoiding conflict in society and also preventing particular communities from carrying the stigma of 'reservations'.

But given the fact that the above suggestion may be considered negative in the current political context, it becomes necessary to make massive efforts to sensitise the 'non-reserved', classes of the need for affirmative action. In the meantime all communities may introspect on the justice of 'reservations' and the need to educate their youth to be able to compete on equal footing.

Source : India Today