Since 1950 the constitution of India provided initially
though only for 10 years, caste based reservations.
Since then we have been continuing with it.
The question now posed by some people, is reservation based
on caste system relevant after so many years in our country.
If we see the general population of our country, it is sad
that even after so many years of this system, there is abject poverty and
people are living in difficult conditions.
In major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai etc there has
been large influx of people from rural areas and despite the fact they live in
big cities, the general education level amongst slum dwellers is rather poor.
What is that prevents the population from taking advantages
of opportunities to advance one’s standard of living.
It starts from education.
As the people find it difficult to eke out a living in our
country, there is least priority for education and parents of poor families do
not encourage education for their children, They are happy if these children
earn a living so that household expenses are met.
It’s ironic that children are made to do jobs at young age,
see the number of people employed in dhabas and garages across our country.
You can find them in every place across India.
As long as these children do not attend school, they would
end up doing small jobs and their lives would not improve.
Despite the fact that there are reservations in education,
these children do not come forward.
If this is so after 67 years of Independence, how can we
think of doing away with the reservations in education?
As the population of lower caste is high, it is this segment
which is also a majority in the poor section.
The lower caste people need to be motivated to take up
education and then they would automatically improve their chances of a better
employment.
That there is quota for lower castes in employments in
government organizations is a big boost for this section, and this would
definitely help this section to study more and further. Ironically the progress
is not much.
What we see is that the affordable community in such section
grabs these reservations and is exploiting these opportunities.
It’s time the government considers the income level along
with the caste reservations, so that the creamy layer is discouraged from
grabbing the opportunities.
The basic reservation should continue but however if the
person from this section has earned sufficient wealth then he or she should be
debarred from such reservation and asked to compete in the open criteria.
