The debate around caste-based reservation is an age-old one. The most prominent argument privileged urban folks make against reservation is that people from the SC/ST communities misuse reservation quotas.
The argument is that SC/ST people use reservation quotas even after obtaining top positions in the society. Stories of a police chief’s son/daughter getting a job is a popular story we often get to hear.
Now, this is called propaganda. The stories are circulated to make us believe that people from the lower castes are lazy and don’t work hard as they get through, using the quota system. Never mind the fact that the low cut-off marks for the people from SC/ST/OBC communities is a direct consequence of the poor infrastructure, discrimination and lack of resources they have deal with, daily.
Most of them drop out of schools and colleges. Of course, sitting in their urban cocoons, people don’t realise that taking away the option of reservation means those kids in impoverished areas won’t go to schools and colleges.
The lower caste was discriminated for many many generations. They were pushed into menial jobs which no one else would do. The reservation system offers them a way to come and live in the mainstream with dignity. But saying that some top-level official’s child only made it because they availed the reservation system – we can’t just tolerate that, now, can we? After all, it was the upper-caste people who discriminated against them for centuries
The reality is that people from the ‘general category’ get a majority of the jobs (government or otherwise), while the lower castes continue to stay poor.
“If the moderates fail to act now history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamour of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Besides, most reservations are applicable only for government jobs and in educational institutions. It’s not generally applicable while applying for a job in MNC/IT/BPO companies.
When a privileged, upper-caste person with all the resources in the world gets rejected, they raise slogans against the ‘unfair system’ to cover up for their incompetence in meeting the cut-off. However, one shouldn’t fall for this. No reservation only means pushing a larger population into misery.
_
Featured image used for representative purposes only.