Reservations for SCs/STs in employment and educational institutions was originally intended for 10 years till 1960. Its extension time and again warrants the question if it is time to stop reservations for SCs/STs and OBCs (added later).
Reservations have helped these communities enter the mainstream to some extent through government employment and educational institutions.
However,
1. Extreme competition has reduced the space for well qualified upper castes leading to Brain Drain.
2. Performance standards in various jobs in the country are not up to the mark because of admission of much less qualified SC/ST as seen in various examinations like IIT JEE.
3. Overall, this results in inefficient allocation of resources since it is not exactly aligned with merit system.
4. Further, vote bank politics has grown steadily with reservation used as a tool to garner votes.
But, still we see that caste discrimination is prevalent in rural India as NGO reports show. Census data shows that SCs and especially STs lag in all major indicators including literacy, IMR, MMR etc. In fact, reports show that some well-off communities in SC/ST/OBC have benefited rather than the ones who needed reservation most. For eg:- Income criteria for creamy layer in
OBC is too high.
Therefore, rather than stopping it altogether, it is time to form a Committee, introspect on the methodology of granting affirmation and refining it to give it to the communities who need it most.
Reservations have helped these communities enter the mainstream to some extent through government employment and educational institutions.
However,
1. Extreme competition has reduced the space for well qualified upper castes leading to Brain Drain.
2. Performance standards in various jobs in the country are not up to the mark because of admission of much less qualified SC/ST as seen in various examinations like IIT JEE.
3. Overall, this results in inefficient allocation of resources since it is not exactly aligned with merit system.
4. Further, vote bank politics has grown steadily with reservation used as a tool to garner votes.
But, still we see that caste discrimination is prevalent in rural India as NGO reports show. Census data shows that SCs and especially STs lag in all major indicators including literacy, IMR, MMR etc. In fact, reports show that some well-off communities in SC/ST/OBC have benefited rather than the ones who needed reservation most. For eg:- Income criteria for creamy layer in
OBC is too high.
Therefore, rather than stopping it altogether, it is time to form a Committee, introspect on the methodology of granting affirmation and refining it to give it to the communities who need it most.