Reservation ????

Everybody in India is familiar is familiar with the concept of the Reservations i.e fixing a quota for specific section of the people based on their category of caste etc. our more knowledgeable forefathers surely had development in mind when they went for the reservations. And this was generally based on the three principles:

• Equality of opportunity: If a member of lower strata applies to a job and has the right qualifications and is a better performer compared to peers, he should get the job. i.e, their caste/economic status should not decide which jobs they apply/get selected to.
• Equality of autonomy: If a member of lower strata wants to become a rocket scientist, and has the intelligence and is willing to work towards this goal, there should not be any barriers to pursuing this goal. i.e, they should not be at a disadvantage when choosing their course of life because they were born poor/belong to a particular caste.
• Social safety net: When certain members of society did not have these privileges earlier and the government wants to help them, certain non- contributory (free) measures are taken to help them. i.e, members of a disadvantaged group are given free financial incentives so that they are not trapped in the present position/do not fall into a life of crime and poverty.

  But In present context, the Hardik patel calling for the quota for Patels is a shining example of what reservation has come to. Now reservations has become a clause for vote bank politics. Main question remains reservation for whom? For the Deprived class. But in reality the beneficiary of the reservation are the same families who have benefited from it and now are not deprived. It has become some sort of vicious cycle.

Though “lower strata” term is relative, the reservation system has not changed anything drastically when comparison of poverty rates and income of the bottom 20% of society is relatively the same compared over the last 40 years. This is more evident in rural areas. There are a significant portion of upper caste (6% of national population) who are poor and do not benefit from reservation. Cost of education has increased 12.5X over the previous decade - even the cheapest institutions have five percent inflation a year. Overall, the Caste based reservation system has achieved very little for the rural poor and has mostly fallen flat on its face in most of the metrics. It has failed because (unfair debate left out, as what's fair to me may not be fair to someone else):

• It has not improved dropout rates
• It has not improved income share of poor people
• It has not performed in terms of quality of education (India ranks 72nd in the world )
• It is not inclusive of all the poor sections of society (poor upper castes are left out)
• It is based on fixed percentages creating selection bubbles ie, there is no incentive to perform for those with reservation and there is no motivation for those without reservation as competition is higher
• There is no data to support reservation based on caste has met any of its objectives after 4 decades of practicing it

Future:
The caste based reservation system is a part of the Indian Constitution and unlikely to change. The window of opportunity to make effective long lasting changes to any Indian system is 10-15 years, and the political landscape is too busy on other things rather than trying to wrap their wits around this. It has affected who we are as a society and it will continue to affect future generations to come. The changes to this system can only be made by a bold government prepared to take action with a long term vision and goals, and that is not going to happen anytime soon.

  

Rules : to be broken or to be followed?

From the very beginning of the civilizations some conditions and rules were in place which gave way to the foundation of a society. even in the current context we live in a world of rules which have to be followed at all times this gives us a feeling of restrictions .The very suffocating feeling that comes from the rules are generally essential for our lives. We do not understand the importance of the rules unless there are some accidents. Rules that we follow in our daily lives provide a semblance of normalcy to our chaotic world.

Rules that we follow in our day to day life cycle are the essential measures of taking steps ahead rightly and proper decisions are centered round the rules which are key to living a good life. Off course stringent laws as for rules before us are somewhat difficult to comply with. Then we take recourse to ignore them somehow resulting in operational difficulties on the way to our normal existence as though we defy to sort out normal acceptance of the other sides and respects of the hard rules only tricky way is the means of breaking a rule for mere attaining objectives in a short cut.

But we forget that there is a reward waiting for us in a long course of our movements ahead. Yet we commit gross mistakes simply avoiding the path of our duty and rules are the does and don't that we sometimes forget to follow because of our petty interests that in course of time prove to be so disastrous that we can hardly be able to protect us from monstrous downfall which is beyond all expectations.

Then we suffer and think long about the past course of action which rendered us sorrow and tears for happiness and cheers due to breaking rules and making a primrose path by sheer indulgence in corrupt means in what actually is in form and manner.

But that doesn’t mean that if a law which is oppressive must be followed. Imagine if the government stops the export of salt in order to save salt in a country, what will happen? One can’t make money as their trade is ruined and this isn’t even fair. Nobody has the right to ruin one’s career. We also know about the oppression when other countries ruled. But the national leaders fought and the citizens became rebellious to fight for their independence. One of the instances is when the women fought against the law of not voting. They fought for acquiring their right and independence and they finally got the 'Universal Adult Franchise'. These were the fruits of their hard work. So we must never forget that besides following certain rules, we too have independence and right to raise our voice against such rules which lead to exploitation and suppression.

I would like to end with that Rules are necessary generally to live a normal life but if you want to make history Some archaic rules will have to be broken.