Job reservation is an affirmative action by the Govt of India to advance the well being of the backward community. The government thus reserves 7.5% for the Tribals, 15% for the Scheduled Caste and 27% for the Other Backward Caste in the public sector. The controversy regarding who all fit to be in the category of the underprivileged community is a different matter from whether there has to be job reservation at all.
On Monday i.e 22 October, 2012, there was a sad and an interesting news item in the Indian Express. It carried the story of an infant Damini whose mother died after the delivery on September 20. Since there was no one to care for the baby, the father who was a rickshaw puller was taking care of her on a cloth sling around his neck. And the news item further added that the man was using a hired rickshaw. It is a kind of a worst situation where one could possibly be in!
Hindustan Times on September 23rd, 2013 carried a news item giving the figures of salary of over ten executives in India. Naveen Jindal tops the list, according to the news item. And Jindal's salary was 7342,00000 rupees per year. The second in the list earns 5701,00000 rupees per year, and this second spot has two people. If we divide Naveen Jindal's annual salary 7342,00000 by 12 it comes to 611,83333 rupees -- and that is the monthly income of this man. And if this monthly earning is divided by 30, it gives 20,39444 -- daily income. A daily income of 20 Lakhs 39 Thousand and Four hundred Forty Four!
With such figures, there is a huge gap between the well-being of Damini and Naveen Jindal's child. (Well-being does not always depend on having so much money, but if one is compelled by the circumstances to starve, question is about survival. And when one is compelled to starve, well-being is seriously undermined.) When well-being is thus divided between members of the community by the economic forces and the governing principles, the system is not fair unless it does something to rectify the gap. Those people who argue for non-intervention by any government agency to regulate the gap -- against reservation policy -- are misguided. To let the rich get richer, aided by the economic and political design and the poor like Damini remain in their miserable state is inhumane. One of ways then to rectify the gap is to device reservation policy, and this policy has to be such that only those who truly deserve it get to benefit from it. Without such policy, there is no way Damini would be able to compete with Naveen Jindal's child!
There is a piece of writing being circulated, attributed to Azim Premji, arguing against reservation. ( I am not sure if it's really his thought). But I am intrigued by his argument. Azim got the best of education in the world -- earning his Bachelors Degree from Stanford University, US. He was born into a family that was rich enough to send him to receive education from one of the finest institutions in the world. He was being lucky! Had he been born in place of Damini, where would he be? To be well-off and to be educated with the finest education is not entirely one's own doing. Yes, he did work hard to pass the exam; but had he not received proper parenting, he might have been a boy out there on the street doing drugs and begging. Had his parents been from a very poor background, he might be illiterate. Had he been born in Capua, (present Italy) in the first century, he might have been a gladiator. For so many people the story of misfortune is not entirely one's own doing; circumstances which are beyond one's own control are also contributing factor to one's present predicament. By similar token, one's own fortune is not entirely one's own doing; there are circumstances that are not my doing that have led me thus far. Given this reality, to blame the less unfortunate ones entirely or to be least bothered about the welfare of those who are less unfortunate is not morally right. After all our fortune depends on 'cosmic lottery' too! So the question is whether those who are fortunate because 'cosmic lottery' ( family background, in- born talents, location, friendship etc) favours them will enjoy the fruit of their 'cosmic lottery' winning themselves or share with those who are less fortunate? Of course, like non-human animals we can care only for our herds; and leave the rest to feed or to starve. Or we can rise above our basal animal instinct and be like humans -- caring for each other across generations and locations. And practical implication of such caring must result in reservation policy.
And as a society, it is going to be more peaceful if there is relative equality between the members of a society. When some are starving outside, and some are having hundred items of food on the table inside a hotel/home, disaster is not so far away.
There is a piece of writing being circulated, attributed to Azim Premji, arguing against reservation. ( I am not sure if it's really his thought). But I am intrigued by his argument. Azim got the best of education in the world -- earning his Bachelors Degree from Stanford University, US. He was born into a family that was rich enough to send him to receive education from one of the finest institutions in the world. He was being lucky! Had he been born in place of Damini, where would he be? To be well-off and to be educated with the finest education is not entirely one's own doing. Yes, he did work hard to pass the exam; but had he not received proper parenting, he might have been a boy out there on the street doing drugs and begging. Had his parents been from a very poor background, he might be illiterate. Had he been born in Capua, (present Italy) in the first century, he might have been a gladiator. For so many people the story of misfortune is not entirely one's own doing; circumstances which are beyond one's own control are also contributing factor to one's present predicament. By similar token, one's own fortune is not entirely one's own doing; there are circumstances that are not my doing that have led me thus far. Given this reality, to blame the less unfortunate ones entirely or to be least bothered about the welfare of those who are less unfortunate is not morally right. After all our fortune depends on 'cosmic lottery' too! So the question is whether those who are fortunate because 'cosmic lottery' ( family background, in- born talents, location, friendship etc) favours them will enjoy the fruit of their 'cosmic lottery' winning themselves or share with those who are less fortunate? Of course, like non-human animals we can care only for our herds; and leave the rest to feed or to starve. Or we can rise above our basal animal instinct and be like humans -- caring for each other across generations and locations. And practical implication of such caring must result in reservation policy.
And as a society, it is going to be more peaceful if there is relative equality between the members of a society. When some are starving outside, and some are having hundred items of food on the table inside a hotel/home, disaster is not so far away.
NB: Edited on 27th May 2014.
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