Affirmative Action in India

In 1980, Mandal Commission report proposed that people belonging to some castes and classes in India should be allotted a quota to compensate for discriminatory societal practices of the past that have left them as a weaker or underprivileged section of the society. In 1990, when the then Indian government implemented the report in government sector, it led to riots. In 2005, the present government proposed implementing the reservation quota in private sector too, which again met with distaste and protests.

In this article, I want to raise the following question. Is assigning a quota to the underprivileged classes the best compensation for their past while being fair to other classes? or is there a better way to enable them towards an equally privileged society?

From the economic point of view, it is understood that the societal biases, especially like in India — that have been there for centuries and are strongly bonded with the religion — can create a huge perpetuating economic divide. In this sense, strong actions to stop the age old process was the need of the hour and in this respect, the Mandal Commission’s proposal of brute force quota allocation in jobs was an important step. Extending the quota to the private sector was coherent with the logic to eradicate the differences from the society. However, are the numbers of quota reservation fair? Or enough? Or is this the right way to go at all?

In USA, African Americans may be considered the equivalent underprivileged class to the so-called lower castes in India. After the civil war in 1865, the amendments in the constitution of the United States eliminated slavery and prevented any further discrimination of African Americans. In 1954, the separate but equal practice — which required African Americans to use equal but separate facilities — was claimed inherently unequal and stopped. In 1960, John F. Kennedy’s executive order mandated federal government and its contractors to implement an affirmative action. The affirmative action required these organizations to ensure that applicants to jobs in their organizations should be treated equally without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In 1964, the affirmative action was implemented in the private sector as well.

An affirmative action as implemented in the USA, increases diversity at the workplace yet still maintains the same quality of work and since, the person is well-qualified for the job it avoids at least some potential discrimination at the workplace. Although, affirmative action in the USA has led to less tolerance towards discrimination, it still has not been able to change the social circumstances that lead to continued discrimination. Defaults in early education and healthcare lead to the development of an individual who may have opportunities that lay ahead but is not well prepared to grab those. Thus, the discriminatory social structure continues.

Quota as implemented in India is more like a quantized reservation. It is an attempt to eradicate the centuries of oppression towards inflicted classes of the society and to strike a balance in providing the opportunities available to different classes of people in the society. Since, the gap is wide; the reservation quota has a big bias towards the discriminated classes. Although, the radical differences in the Indian society — which being so deeply rooted and strongly attached with the religion are hard to change easily — may have prompted the committee to propose biased job reservations, the underlying purpose of having a non-discriminative and equal society is not achieved.

In the present system, the economic condition of the historically higher castes is not accommodated. The quota system has left a feeling of distaste amongst these higher caste people, who face even more cut throat competition for jobs. The quota has largely decreased any competition for the people of underprivileged classes, but in reality large factions of these classes are extremely poor and not even candidates for those jobs. As in the USA, it does nothing to solve the social circumstances i.e. early education, healthcare that lead to continued miserable economic conditions of these classes. An able individual can only take able responsibilities when an opportunity strikes. Now, that the opportunities are there, the affirmative action in India should also focus on developing such able individuals. Along with that, the affirmative action should be such that the historically higher caste people with poor economic backgrounds should also be provided equal opportunities.

Implementing an affirmative action in India — as it is in its present state — means changing lot of other complex sets of processes and practices, for example, workplace, hiring and college and university admission policies. This needs a lot of faith, respect and strength in the law. In that sense, considering the corruption and lawlessness in India, the quota system has been an attempt to meet the ends directly. Now, it should focus on solving the underlying problems that will eliminate discrimination and enable lasting equality in society.

Meeting the ends like with quota system does change the balance, but does not change the process that shakes this balance. The change in process is the most important step; and then, the ends will be achieved automatically.

This is not an easy task. It necessitates government to legalize policies of affirmative action along with an effort to uphold the law in tackling widespread corruption at all the levels in our society. As discussed earlier, the discriminatory gap will reduce if the affirmative action has its direct effect on providing better opportunities to the children. More than providing the job quota when they are adults, the children of the weaker classes should get better and free facilities for education, nutrition and proper healthcare. Then, they will develop into the candidates for better jobs and more.

A greater impact also calls for a change in the mindset of the Indian society. The need of the hour is a parallel process, where government implements the affirmative action and individuals, forums, and organizations like Silent Change influence the mindsets of people towards generating a society conducive to the equality of our people.

As of now, implementing the quota system in India can be understood as asking someone who has been a chain smoker for most of the life to quit smoking right from this moment. We all know about the vulnerability of such an approach. A proper affirmative action is like educating the individual about the dangers of smoking, putting that person on a nicotine patch, teaching the person to handle the desire to smoke, making the laws on smoking stricter and in the process eradicating the bad habit. In this way, the person may not just leave the bad habit, but also contribute by educating his dear ones not to smoke.

Affirmative action should be planned, proposed and acted upon with a vision into the dynamics of how things will sustain over a long period. It is a silent change – deeper than what is visible on a shorter period. It is the only sustainable answer.

References:

Silent Change, February 11, 2007

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