Reservations in India has been existent for more than half a century now. It was then, the need of the hour, to close the gap on discrimination. Throughout the tenure of existence it has for sure made a lot of impact on the lives of almost every Indian, be it good or bad. Some of its notable impacts are as follows...
- It has given way for the people from the backward classes (which was also the economically backward class, when this was introduced) an equal chance to be able to pursue education at esteemed institutions as well as be able to get reserved opportunities to have a shot at the employment prospects at all Government and PSU establishments.
- It has been a very effective political tool to win elections since then, till date.
- It has failed to completely bridge the discrimination on the people's mind but has been aiding communal clashes both big and petty.
- It has made any government employee reap benefits (everything or nothing) resulting in a divided mindset on this concept.
- This has paved way for a few truly potential individuals and many incompetent individuals to rise to higher levels in the organizational ladder.
- With bribery and falsehood at ease, another very important impact is that countless people have doctored their caste identity to fall under one of the backward castes to harness its benefits.
It's certain that a politician will neither raise a voice to, if not abolish but even alter the reservation rules based on the present needs nor will he allow any other person who may try to do that, be heard. Also they (The Politicians) have already started looking at roping in other MNC based employment sectors to abide by these reservation rules as well, to boost up their political presence
Since the idea of reservation was started for the equality of opportunities in education and employment. There has been a few other sectors which hasn't been incorporated into this system for a long time and I would like to throw some light in that direction.
In Politics
- Why not the 825 (280 in RS & 545 in LS) seats in the parliament be apportioned and alloted based on the reservation quota rules?
- Why not every state election strictly abide by the reservation rules. E.g in Tamil Nadu the 234 legislative seats must constitute the combination of all castes summing upto the total count of 234?
- Another option for the previous one, every political party should choose their candidates with the mix of people, applying the reservation quota rules.
- The elections at reserved constituencies must be contested by the those of that caste only.
- During the vote counting in a constituency where the a BC candidate of a party and SC candidate of another party are contesting, the SC candidate should be given more preference even if lesser number of people have voted for him.
In Sports
- The playing team in every sport should be according to reservation quota policies for whichever level of participation, be it school, college, state or even representing India.
- If it's an individual sport, matches should take place between players of different castes, wherein the winner will represent the State or Nation in that sport. However the winning rules are different for different castes. For eg in a five game encounter, the upper caste has to win all 5 to move on further however the SC/ST are through to the next round even if they win just one game.
- In the IPL, every team MUST consist of at-least one of OC/BC/MBC/OBC/SC/ST. Also the at least TWO foreign players MUST have valid caste certificate belonging to any one these.
In Entertainment
- How about the lead role casts be chosen on caste based reservations? Why do they need to pick the cast and crew based on their skill, beauty or talent?
- The screening or the auditioning process MUST have the caste based preferences as the entry criterion.
- Why to spare the beauty pageant shows from these rules?
- The reality / talent shows should not eliminate people even if they are voted out, if that person belongs to any of MBC/SC/ST.
Whatever that is age old, needs restoration and renovation and the Reservation policies are no exemptions. It's high time that either the bureaucrats and the politicians woke up and wear their thinking hats for the true progress of the nation or make the nation uniformly go down the drain on all fronts (like the few which has been suggested above) so that there is no discrimination (which is the core mantra of the reservation policies).
