HYPOTHESIS:

This paper talks about how reservation system in India is diminishing the potential of Indian society.

ARGUMENTS:
- Different scales of measurement for different applicants discourages meritocracy leading to the feeling of discrimination in non-quota applicants. - The system is used by the political parties in power to reap their own benefits, Mandal Commission, Mayawati and Mulayam Singh govt. - The reservation system does not allow the seeds of casteism to be removed from society but deepens it even further and there is false sense of achievement that is being offered by these policies. - The biggest problem is faced by the person heading the group in trying to point out mistakes of the people from the marginalised sections of society as the person might be misunderstood for pointing out for discriminating on the basis of caste.

RESERVATION SYSTEM IN INDIA The reservation system was incorporated by the Indian Constitution with an idea of bringing the marginalised sections of society on par with the privileged sections of society as a temporary phenomenon for a period of 10 years. This sort of positive discrimination was done to bring equality of status as well as opportunity in the society. But even 60 years down the line the reservation system is still in place. The following paper states that how the reservation system in India has diminished the potential of the society. There is unrest in youth as the system discourages meritocracy as different scales of measurement are being used to judge the people with the same qualifications. The reservation system is used by our power hungry politicians for their vote banks as was evident when Mandal Commission was introduced. Caste based politics is played by various regional parties such as BSP and SP on a large scale. The reservation system has failed on all fronts as neither it has been able to uplift the marginalised sections of society nor it has been able to remove the

caste system from the society but has deepened its seed even further. The person heading the groups is facing the most problems as there is hesitancy in their minds in trying to point out the mistakes of the people from the reserved sections of society as there is a fear of being misunderstood for caste based discrimination being done on their part. (roy, 2004) As per the Indian Constitution there should be no discrimination with any person on the basis of caste, creed, religion and region. It is a fundamental right as well i.e. Right to Equality. But still there is a different scale of measurement for different applicants as there is a compulsory reservation of 50% for SC/ST candidates in all government institutions along with a 27% reservation for people from Other Backward Classes (OBCS). Apart from that there is a provision of separate merit list being formed for these candidates. Thats why almost 52% of the government jobs are in the hands of people from reserved category people only. For ex- In the Union Public Service Commission Examination (UPSC) 2009, which is considered as the top most exam of the

country, the general category cut off was 980. In other place the cut off for OBC candidates was 956 whereas the SC candidates got call at 900 marks and ST candidates at 860 marks. So now it is absolutely normal for a general category person to feel discriminated as he/she might not have got a call despite having higher marks than the people of reserved categories. So the question arises that Did the examination which is conducted to select the top brains of the country failed to serve its purpose? Even in the top colleges of higher education such as IITs, IIMs, NIITs or for that instance any other top notch college of the country the reservation system is there. The answer is Yes it did as the scales of measurement used to judge these people were different which in turn discourages meritocracy. Even in the day and age of cut throat competition for admissions in the top institutions and jobs, the quota seats still remain unfilled in higher as the marginal section people have not yet attained the minimum educational qualifications. The government in argument has responded by saying that it would increase the number of seats in the

educational institutions as compensation. But this would lead to suffering of the quality of education. (sharma, 2005)

The reason for unrest in the society is that on the one hand it encourages one section of the society to progress but at the same time pushes other sections of the society into a dark oblivion. If all the reservation policies which were being pursued were not enough as government introduced the 93rd ammendment which offers

reservation in the higher educational institutions. So from the above given facts and figures about the selection procedure of UPSC officers it is absolutely clear that discrimination is being against nonquota applicants. At the same time the famous Darwins law i.e. Survival of the Fittest is being violated because who is the fittest cannot be determined until and unless everyone is on the same plane. So violation of the law is only leading to the loss of the potential of our society. At least the best institutions of the country should produce all geniuses for the betterment of the society.

The implementations of recommendations of the Mandal Commission Report under V.P.Singh lead to a huge unrest especially in the northern region of the country. Everyone was all right with the reservations for the SC/ST candidates but all of a sudden there was a demand of reservation for the other backward classes as well. A large number of youth immolated themselves as a mark of protest. The death of Rajiv Goswami is still hurting everyone as it is burning in every memory. (commission, 2004) All this came to an end when Supreme Court announced that there will be no reservation for the Creamy Layer in the central govt. jobs. The presence of the ghosts of the Mandal Commission were again felt when the Union Central health Minister, Arjun Singh called for a 27% increment in the reservations for OBCs in the Central universities, IITs, IIMs and other private universities. The caste based politics played by the parties such as BSP (under Mayawati) -a Schedule Caste leader and SP (under Mulayam Singh Yadav) - an OBC leader in the state of Uttar Pradesh is a prime

example. The parties try to encash their vote banks by this quota based increment by attracting the SC/ST and OBCs as they identify them as their potential vote banks. The political parties do not take in to consideration the impact of these discriminatory policies on the society. The Mayawati Govt. increases the SC seats in the State Govt. Services when it comes to power while the Mulayam Singhs Govt. increases the OBC seats when it comes to power. The BSP as a party was born mainly out of an association which took place between Dalit Trade Unions and backward class government employees. These parties gained political power due to the affirmative action policies taken. The influence these parties have on the minds of the people on this caste- based division is evident from the fact that in the last poll of U.P state govt. election in 2007 BSP came up with the clear cut majority winning almost 200 seats. While this time round in 2012 state polls SP came up with the clear majority winning 224 seats, the state rule keeps shifting from one party to another every next election. (singh) The welfare of the state quotient has gone out of the window its the supremacy of the caste which is shown in the elections. The people

are not willing to give chance to a national party for its welfare despite the fact that the progress of U.P. has been miserable when compared to some other states of the country. This way the whole purpose of the democracy is being defeated as its the people who are electing these people but are this people working in the right direction. The Govts work in the right direction when they have the fear of being voted out and change is the name of democracy. But this has not been seen in the state at all.

The reservation system instead of removing the caste system from the society has further deepened its roots. A close observation of the reservation policy shows that the intention behind its implementation is absolutely right but the problem lies in the implication and application part of the policy. The implementation has aggravated the caste distinctions, marginalisation of the poor and needy people and only the topmost layer of the marginal sections have been benefitted. The benefits of reservation have not shown trickledown effect to the lowest sections. The spirit of brotherhood and healthy competition is

being killed along with lowering the spirits to work hard and surge forward. There is a growing disagreement that caste- based distinction was mainly aimed to remove the discrimination from the society but it has it has strengthened the discrimination. It has reinforced the sense of separate identities among different caste members and competition. The Commission for SCs and STs, now two different Commissions, also does not possess the required power. There is a lack of transparency and accountability as far as filling up of quota seats are concerned. The figures show that in 1991 only the literacy rate of Dalit women was 19% only compared to the 64% of the literate population of the country. The illiteracy gap and dropout rate is very high for the marginal sections. In 1992 govt. launched the Manual Scavengers Act, under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act (Prevention of Atrocities Act). Despite this as per the govt. statistics almost one million Dalits are manual scavengers. The violence against Dalits has shown an upward trend in the 1990s.

The reason for failure of the implementation of the act has been due to various factors such as police ignorance of the Act, a lack of willingness to register offences, police corruption, poor investigation, and lack of special courts to deal with the cases, lack of witnesses and the unacceptance of statements from SC/ST persons. The reason cited for all these lack of attention and corruption is cited as that the people who are given the task of implementing the policies represent wider socially held beliefs in the society, due to the public administration being prepondered by the high caste officials of the bureaucracy. Social Boycotts and increased violence against Dalits shows that the measures, programs and provisions have not been able to overcome social discrimination but has lead to the caste system s roots to deepen. (shukla, 2000)

The major drawback which is often overlooked is that in work places where the reservation has been legally implemented and has now become inseparable parts of the administrative system is of inefficiency. The biggest problem that the head of the departments

nowadays are facing is that they are fearful of pointing out the mistake of the person belonging to the marginalised sections of society, due to the fact that people might misunderstand him/her for targeting marginal groups of society. This result in a remark not meant for insulting someone being taken as one by the people. For example- Once in an airlines visit, a person kept on requesting the Air Hostess for something in an Airlines and the Air Hostess kept on overhearing that person. As a result the person got frustrated and shouted that What is the problem with you people? In reality what the person meant to say was that why the staff of the airlines was being so uncooperative i.e. what is the problem of the people of the airlines? But instead of that the comment was taken in the wrong stead as the Air Hostess belonged to the minority sections of the society. At last this turned out to be a court case in which person was charged of discrimination on the basis of race. There are many more such examples where people have been misunderstood for discriminating with the people on the basis of caste instead of the person himself being the wrong-doer. (sharma r. , 2008)

The question that arises is that whether there is any need to carry this reservation problem despite the fact that it is hampering the growth of the society. Yes, it is true that there was a time when people from marginal sections of the society were treated really badly. But the question is that whether a wrong doing can be an answer for a wrong already done? Since it has already been proved by various research studies carried out on human brain that every person is born with an equal amount of brain, so there is no need for any sort of reservation in the educational institutions for higher studies. Also people will learn to survive in this world on their own as every person has to do at some point in their lives. If the reservation system goes out of the equation than at least the era of caste based politics would come to an end. The politicians would not be able to divide the people further just to encash their votes. This would lead to the removal of menaces of caste discrimination which have started to deepen their roots in the Indian social structure. The reason being that people from other castes have now started to feel

discriminated. This would also lead to free working of the Head of the Departments. (Gupta, 2006) The only solution that the whole system has is to completely remove the reservations or even if they have to be necessarily implemented than the criterion should be economic rather than caste. There are people from higher castes who are poor and are not able to bear the up going costs of Higher Education. So in order to ensure that almost every Indian gets proper education the reservation should be provided to the people living Below Poverty Line irrespective of caste, creed, religion and region etc.

Bibliography
commission, m. (2004). reservation report. new delhi. Gupta, M. R. (2006). problem in jobs- discrimination. (p. chawla, Interviewer) roy, a. (2004). reservation and Indian society. Retrieved feb 17, 2012, from indian express: www.indianexpress.com sharma, r. (2008). discrimination. bareilly, uttar pradesh, india. sharma, r. (2005). reservation and indian education. dna , pp. 20-25. shukla, n. (2000). caste system. bareilly, uttar pradesh, india. singh, k. (n.d.). reservation and politics. Retrieved feb 17, 2012, from hindustantimes: www.hindustantimes.com