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.