Concern for my friends fighting out there

The Reservation Rhetoric

My Thoughts after some reflection

The basic need and the right of a human being is to live with dignity. To achieve this one requires is the self esteem and the confidence in one's own capabilities. The basic logic behind any affirmative action is to build capabilities which in turn provide the self esteem. The whole following article is built from this perspective.The need; yes there is a need for affirmative action in the country becoz still a large part of our indian brethren are living under the beseige of social discrimination. A number of incidents that have occured, ranging from hinterlands of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to urban echelons of Mumbai and other towns, remind us of the line that still exists. The number is a huge figure that reminds us of the failure to integrate our lost brohters in our homes.Why there is a need? because the government and its instruments have failed to penetrate to reach to the depth of the problem. Now the question arises, what are those instruments and why have the failed? I shall try to list down the instruments and the reasons. These may not be exhaustive; this is where your inputs will be required.

The policy of reservations:

This is one of the quick ways to provide a person with oppportunity to build capacity and abilities in himself. The person is brought into an environment, a competitive one; and left alone to competite and build something which he has not learnt till now. One of the many scenarios that arise is the person gets disillusioned as he is not able to make progress and wastes the opportunity. I agree the person is not much at fault. Some actually get through the process with flying colors and put good value to their opportunity. But many of them are still not able to enhance their self esteem as they consistently underperform in comparison to their peers, who have come through much rigorous process. Yes, this policy did give them the opportunity and did increase their abilities. But it fails in increasing their self esteem; the basic premise of our argument. Some of the other observed faults with this policy are repeated availing of the reservation by subsequent generations, using the provision in subsequent and further education and misuse of the clause by making false certificates.

The economic support and support in form of other resources:

The government provides resources in terms of money, free books, subsidy in education fees and others. The government has direct control over government schools. Everyone knows the condition and the quality of education provided by these schools. Therefore this instrument is blunted and cannot be used by the government. To make changes at this level the monkey in the cabinet will have to do a lot of hard work apart from just making proposals and passing a bill. Mind you, only students from economically weaker background study here. The truth is a majority of these also belong to socially weaker backgrounds. But nobody here is even considerate about the status of an economically weaker higher caste child because some of ancestors may have enjoyed some privileges. The children of economically strong socially backwards study in the likes of DPS and Modern. Primary education is an instrument that can most effectively build the capabilities an the self esteem, but how much do we see is happening here. I have a story to narrate for the case where the govt provides monetary support. Many of u must have seen the Office Office TV serial (by Pankaj Kapur) on the SAB TV. His plight was like that of the protagonist, to receive the money required to fund his tuition fees. All this only highlight the failure of the government on different fronts.

Im not against any affirmative actions for the economically and socially underprivileged; but im not convinced by the instruments that the government plans to use to attain its objective, Because our experience of almost 55 odd years suggest that the policy of reservations has failed.
On one front we had a government (the last one) that wanted the review of this policy and here is one which wants to continue with the same. It is high time that the government takes up the responsibility for its actions towards all the sections of the society.

Our struggle must not only be to oppose the present status but to give an alternative status also. So please think on this front also and come up with ur suggestions.