Essays
RESERVATIONS: BANE OR BOON?
Ever since the acceptance of ‘Mandal Commission Report’ by the Central government, the entire issue of reservations has come under close scrutiny of those who have remained reticent on this sensitive subject all these years, for reasons best known to them. The vociferous voices for and against the ‘policy of reservation’ are being raised by different sections of Indian society, for they fear class-war, caste-war and civil war if their respective view-points and stands are not respected and accepted in toto.
In a country of our dimensions and diversities, some aberrations are bound to grow whenever some revolutionary reform is brought about. That is why the Constitution was adopted on the basis of an egalitarian, secular and casteless society. It took into account the injustice done to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, by the social order for centuries, in practice and in perpetuation. A deliberate step was, therefore, taken to provide certain safeguards for them. These safeguards were incorporated, ensured and extended in the form of reservations in jobs and legislatures, both in letter and spirit of the Constitution. It is a different matter that these benefits and reservations have not percolated down to the lowest and the poorest levels for which they were meant.
Thus, these special privileges have proved a boon for some and a bane for others—the latter grudge and grumble that they have been made to suffer and sacrifice for the past sins in the commission of which they had no hand. The fact that social justice for all the down-trodden and the under-privileged cannot be secured by reservations only is evident from the example of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
A report of the Commission for scheduled castes and tribes is an eye opener. It says: “For millions of weaker section owning small land holdings, payment of statutorily-fixed minimum wage or escape from atrocities suf-fered for generations, remains a
Ever since the acceptance of ‘Mandal Commission Report’ by the Central government, the entire issue of reservations has come under close scrutiny of those who have remained reticent on this sensitive subject all these years, for reasons best known to them. The vociferous voices for and against the ‘policy of reservation’ are being raised by different sections of Indian society, for they fear class-war, caste-war and civil war if their respective view-points and stands are not respected and accepted in toto.
In a country of our dimensions and diversities, some aberrations are bound to grow whenever some revolutionary reform is brought about. That is why the Constitution was adopted on the basis of an egalitarian, secular and casteless society. It took into account the injustice done to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, by the social order for centuries, in practice and in perpetuation. A deliberate step was, therefore, taken to provide certain safeguards for them. These safeguards were incorporated, ensured and extended in the form of reservations in jobs and legislatures, both in letter and spirit of the Constitution. It is a different matter that these benefits and reservations have not percolated down to the lowest and the poorest levels for which they were meant.
Thus, these special privileges have proved a boon for some and a bane for others—the latter grudge and grumble that they have been made to suffer and sacrifice for the past sins in the commission of which they had no hand. The fact that social justice for all the down-trodden and the under-privileged cannot be secured by reservations only is evident from the example of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
A report of the Commission for scheduled castes and tribes is an eye opener. It says: “For millions of weaker section owning small land holdings, payment of statutorily-fixed minimum wage or escape from atrocities suf-fered for generations, remains a