What a difference a week makes. Tavleen Singh, who in her article on December 10 (‘Time to end reservations’ IE, December 10) questioned the entire reservation policy and argued for its end is now just questioning its effectiveness. Let me start by saying that I agree wholeheartedly with her – reservation must go. But here is my caveat – only when the constitutional goals of social justice, diversity, equity, and equality have been achieved. Even today, more than 90 per cent of corporate boards in India are made up of upper-caste members. And around 90 per cent of all weddings in the country are endogamous and again, 90 per cent of all menial jobs are performed by people from the deprived castes whereas this figure is reversed in white-collar jobs. This abysmal lack of caste diversity, especially at the decision-making levels in various sectors — the media, judiciary, higher education, bureaucracy and the corporate sector — is responsible for the predominance of caste even today, and the need for reservation and other measures of affirmative action.
There is a group of public intellectuals in the country who tend to believe that they have been “de-casted”, and that they have gotten rid of all the markers of caste identity. But whether we acknowledge it or not, caste has been at the forefront of our social existence and regulates our lives – from birth to death, customs, rituals, housing, professions, development planning, and even voting preferences. It is the big elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge or try to remove. The arrogance of this subset of the population has perhaps led them to internalise the belief that it was reservation that gave birth to caste in India.
Caste-based reservation is not a poverty alleviation programme. It is a process through which centuries of oppression and subjugation are being sought to be righted at the bare minimum level. What reservation, and especially reservation in the post-Mandal era, has done is create an awareness about caste discrimination that had been hitherto ignored. As a character in the movie, The Great Debaters says: “I have a right, even a duty, to resist — with violence or civil disobedience. You should pray I choose the latter.”
It is ironic that Tavleen Singh and others (because she is certainly not alone in this matter) easily become cheerleaders for causes like “Black Lives Matter”, or as Shashi Tharoor did with his iconic Oxford University speech on reparation (as they should). But closer home, their attitudes have been exposed. She is particularly harsh towards OBCs, who, according to her are not backward at all, and actually “sit at the top”, especially since the Prime Minister himself is a proud OBC. Hence, according to Singh, they do not need reservation. She would do well to remember that OBC reservations have come through a constitutionally-mandated process. The Mandal Commission, after thorough research, listed communities as OBC based on social, educational and cultural backwardness and placed 43 recommendations for OBC empowerment and upliftment. However, only two of these were accepted and implemented by the Government of India.
The need for a caste census is imperative because if reservation must end, it can only happen when there is clear data regarding the percentage of the population in each caste and the extent of their socio-economic development at the micro level through the creation of a social justice index. To date, no national audit has been conducted to examine the extent to which affirmative action programmes have succeeded in lifting Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs from socio-economic-educational backwardness. At the same time, data from various government organisations point to the fact that upper-caste hegemony is flourishing. Information furnished by the Union Minister of Law & Justice shows that a whopping 75 per cent of the 650 high court judges appointed between 2018 and 2023 belong to the upper castes. And only 76 judges belong to the Other Backward Classes. Similarly, as per a statement given by the Minister of State for Education in Parliament on April 2, 2023, in the last five years, more than 19,000 SC, ST, and OBC students dropped out of Union-government-funded institutions. Both these sets of figures – and there are many others – are naturally interlinked. If they don’t qualify, then how can they be appointed? Dropping out of college is not an individual issue — it’s a social issue, caused by deep-rooted casteism.
The situation could have been different if faculty members from the marginalised communities were adequately represented. However, data on faculty from marginalised and deprived communities is equally appalling. Only 4 per cent of professors and 6 per cent of associate professors working in 45 central universities belong to OBC communities, and only five vice-chancellors of 45 central universities belong to the OBC community. We are still a long way from filling the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs even at the entry level of academia, with only about 18 per cent of OBC posts in central universities being filled. Moreover, OBCs constitute more than half the population but even based on the almost century-old data of the last Caste Census, they have been denied their dues, and have had to be content with 27 per cent reservation.
The results of the caste survey undertaken by the Bihar government show that while SC, ST and EWS communities are given adequate reservation vis a vis their proportion in the population, the OBC population continues to be short-changed. The Bihar caste survey puts the OBC population in the state at around 60 per cent, and yet, even today, their proportion of reservation is limited to 27 per cent.
Affirmative action provided by reservation policies has been a small step in providing a level playing field, much like the DIE (Diversity, Inclusion, Equity) policies followed globally. Till the time Tavleen Singh’s grandchild and the child of the grandchild’s nanny or the child of the driver who takes him or her to school can also study in the same school (without the benefit of any “quota” of course) and get equal treatment, reservation is essential. Centuries of oppression and subjugation cannot be undone with half a century of policies. A caste census can be the launching pad required to articulate steps and policies for a more equal and equitable society so that the aim of the Preamble to the Constitution and the goal of social justice can be achieved.
Chandan Yadav is national secretary, Indian National Congress. The views expressed are personal