A case for Reservation ?

It was recess at the B-school and Ram was muttering, “unfair” when Betty caught him. “What’s unfair ?”. “The whole bloody system” said Ram not particularly to Betty and then looked up and Betty saw the agitation in his eyes inspite of his Ram.

“It’s about my brother, Betty. He aspires to become a doctor and had given his Entrance exams. You know he was ranked 200th in the state… “Wow!” exclaimed Betty”, Ram continued as though Betty had not spoken “… and yet he cannot obtain a seat in any medical college in the country.” “Why is that, Ram”, asked Betty. “It is that silly stupid system of reservations. It is so unfair”, said Ram. “Is there no way out” asked Malli (because she grew a jasmine garden on her head) as she and Bhooka (because he always looked starved) joined them at the table. Malli, who had known Ram’s family from childhood, had known about Ram’s brother. Ram’s parents were both doctors and had their own ‘family clinic’ in their hometown. They had hoped that their sons would inherit and continue their practice. But Ram had never displayed any inclination towards medicine but his brother had been sufficiently inspired by his parents to have made it his mission.

“There are many ways out” replied a disgusted Ram “if you have forty lakh rupees”. “My brother scored 98 %, you know, and yet… ” And “idiots who scored less than that get a seat in a medical college because they belong to the right caste”. The rest of the gang had now assembled around Ram. “It is ok, Ram. Your brother is better than most of ‘them’. And we cannot do anything about the system. It is all politics, you know. If it were not for the politics and the politicians, many young men and women would have had entirely different careers.”

Poker (because he was always particular about being politically correct) spoke up, “Ram, we know how your family’s passionate aspirations for your brother’s career. My sympathies. That said, however, Betty you shouldn’t badmouth the system.”

“Are you trying to justify the reservation policy?” asked Malli who could always smell an argument 20 minutes away. “Surely, you don’t think that Reservations in educational institutions are a fair game”, added Bhooka.

“It might not be a perfectly fair system but it is about as close as we have got”, began Poker. “The system of Reservation is meant to aid the students from the downtrodden society. To give them a chance at achieving their potential”.
“Downtrodden hmph! I personally know many people belonging to the so-called ‘backward communities’. They are not exactly longing for the basic necessities” said Betty. “Many are downright wealthy”, concluded Ram

Betty started, “Aiding the downtrodden is fine, Poker but have you ever heard of level-playing field”, aligning her hands and moving them for effect. “The right to equality”, added Malli. “Yeah!” thumped Ram.

Poker, clearly alone, defended, “The right to equality should not be interpreted strictly. It refers to the right to equal opportunities. Ram, if you were to own a car, can I force you to share that with me citing Right to equality. You see, persons from ‘Forward communities’ have certain natural advantages. They come from families which can afford food, clothing, shelter and education. More importantly, theses families value and know the importance of education. In all probability, they are educated families-either conventional school or alternative religious education. Children growing up under these circumstances have a definitive edge over children whose illiterate parents scrap home a living.”

“Ok Ok, Poker ! But you must have seen the parents of SC/ST students during the counselling. They seemed rather well off. That’s abusing the system ” argued Ram.

“If there were persons from backward communities well off, it is most likely that they have been beneficiaries of Reservation.” proclaimed Thalivar announcing his arrival at the table. “The people most of us come in contact with are urban professionals. We live in cities with cosmopolitan lifestyles. The parents that you talked about are beneficiaries of the urban industrialisation or those whose families have benefited from Reservations some time ago.”

“We must understand the historical need for reservation” continued Thalivar. “Around the time of independence, when BR Ambedkar mooted the idea of reservations, they wealthy, the educated and the influential were invariably from the classes which are now sadly clubbed as ‘other castes’. Serious incentives were required to uplift the poorer classes”

“But did not Ambedkar himself seek to end Reservations within 10-20 years” interrupted Poker, relieved that Thalivar could actually be supporting him (but with Thalivar you never knew). “Yes, that’s right. The early idea was to empower a generation of poorer classes and achieving ripple effects” replied Thalivar.

Malli stood up, “If you want to educate the backward castes, give free compulsory education, and if they are brainy enough then they probably will earn high grades necessary to earn them seats in medical and engineering colleges. This business of reserving seats is cruel to others. It is similar to allowing certain athletes a handicap of 75 metres in a 400 m race.”

Poker too stood up, raising his voice, “Malli, you are selfish. It is like insisting that all athletes begin at the Start line when you know that some of the competitors are on crutches” Bhooka calmed them “Cool it, you two!”

Thalivar spoke as though nothing had ever happened, “While that was the historical idea, today, one finds that many students from the backward classes who use the reservation are from better backgrounds and those who actually do not need them.” “Then shouldn’t there be a mechanism by which the sops are restricted to one generation?” asked Bhooka.

“Sadly, there are no such legislative mechanisms. We can only hope such families voluntarily give up the benefits of reservation so that students-in-need from the poorer classes can benefit”, said Thalivar.

“But Thalivar, there are a lots of people amongst the so called Forward castes who live below the poverty line. My domestic help is a case in point. What do they do? They have been designated ‘Forward’ by the government by they are in no way ‘forward’.” spoke Poker.

“Arrey yaar ! You are hitting a same side goal”, laughed Ram. “ Ah.. Well..I did not claim that the system was perfect. I only urged you to stop blaming the system because of one personal adverse experience”, clarified Poker.

“It is far from perfect” said Malli. “It is rather easy to get a fake certificate about their caste and people do it without much guilt. Can’t really blame them, can you?”

Betty spoke, “That’s it! The system is not perfect. It would have been perfect if the reservation is based on income criteria. Castes have never been relevant, have they?”

Ram flared up, “Do you think that a system that encourages mediocrity over meritocracy is perfect. Betty. Can you think of what will happen when students who get in to engineering, not because they are capable but because of their caste or their parents’ low income, graduate and build bridges and buildings. They would probably collapse within 5 years. And about such doctors.. I shudder to even think”


Thalivar started, “Well, the system, admittedly, is not perfect. Nor can it possibly be. India is too vast and too complex for anything to be perfect. Caste lobbies lobby with politicians to recognise their caste as ‘backward’ and politicians being what they are oblige for the sake of a few hundred votes. Then the issue of the neglected ‘forward caste’ candidates who are economically poor. Certain state reserve 69 % of the seats. Now, what kind of an absurd number is that? The system as originally introduced was probably the best possible at that point of time.”

“How is that?” interrupted Betty. “Isn’t economical criteria a more logical and social justice worthy?”

Thalivar answered, “Back then around Independence, India was not as cosmopolitan as you and I see it today. The citizens could be, and also wanted to, classified into castes. People of the same caste generally indulged in similar professions and ended up having similar incomes and similar lifestyles and values. Not that there weren’t any anomalies. A crude comparison would probably be the business segments that are reported in a company’s Balance Sheet. While a given operation can be classified either in its geographical segment or business segment the dominating one is chosen as primary classification. Similarly, if people could be classified into castes and economic status, it was only right that they were classified into castes as it invariably determined their social status. For each person community life revolved around his or her caste. It was so by social consent.”

“Betty, economic standing of families is not everything. The home atmosphere, the values one learns, the competitive edge from having educated parents cannot be disregarded. But today, I agree, circumstances have changed. The system needs a lot of tweaking, over-hauling and fine-tuning, but probably there is no real radical workable alternative.”

Beep Beep. That was Ram’s mobile. He read, “Government recognises new medical college with 500 seats. Chotu will get through after all.”

“Hurray ! that was a happy ending to an enlightening conversation.