Reservations in India

Drafting Committee of Constitution headed by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar provided reservations in Indian constitution to protect vulnerable sections of India from social, economic and political discrimination. They wanted to give opportunities to different sections of society fairly. With that good intention they included reservations in the constitution as Fundamental Rights. Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950. During 60 years, India made several amendments to the constitution including reservations. At present India provides for a quota system whereby a percentage of posts are reserved in employment in government and in the public sector units, in all public and private educational institutions and for representation in Parliament of India and Assemblies of States. Furthermore, constitution was amended to extend the reservations in promotions to government and PSU employees.

Reservations give opportunities to the backward communities of society to improve themselves. Because in India the level of regional imbalance is very high, so those who are economically forward they can get resources easily compared to those who relatively poor. Where different sections of people are enjoying different resources than merit only cannot be the factor for jobs and recruitment. Merit based recruitment always favors elite class in the society because they have accessibility to the knowledge at their disposal. Certainly, reservations helped some of the backward sections of India to develop themselves in different areas, where they were not there earlier.

Reservations are provided to the weaker sections of society, so that they can be economically and socially strong. Though reservations are started with very good objectives, there are three problems in implementing it. First, In India, reservations are based on caste. Every caste has economically forward and backward people, so forward people of that caste have an undue advantage over backward people of that caste. Ultimately, proceeds of reservations not optimally reaching the target group. Second, reservations are based on religion. Constitution of India considered only one religion for reservations. Reservations should be based on humanistic approach; it should be applied to all weaker sections of the country irrespective of religion they belong to. Third, reservations in getting jobs and placements are fine but reservations in promotions are not good to the organization they work for. Once they are part of an organization, they should be treated equal and merit should be the criteria. Otherwise, the organization's existence may be in danger.

The concept of reservations is virtuous but the problem is with the implementation. Economic factor should be the criteria for reservations but not caste and religion. As Supreme Court of India said "Every forward cast has backward people, and every backward cast have forward people".

Illusion of Equality

In terms of society, equality means the right of different groups of people to have similar social, economic, political positions and receive the same treatment. In other words, every person should get all rights which are enjoyed by others. But mankind is in the false impression about equality since its civilization started. Equality never possible, it is just a myth. Man built his society in such a manner where equality doesn't exist. There is no society in the world which enjoys the equality. Still men thrive for equality, which is, however, impossible until human society structure remains same.

Individual thinks either other person is greater or lesser to him but never equal to other. When civilization started this mentality influenced the structure of society and equality disappeared completely. Society is in different hierarchical structures, where persons at the top enjoy more benefits compared to the persons at low levels. Though this hierarchy is not rigid i.e. person position in the hierarchy changes according to the situation, group, time etc. However, there are always some persons who enjoy more benefits in the society than others. As the time passed, man started accepting the inequality in the society, perhaps he forgot equality. Men started ignoring the inequalities and gave different excuses to cover his acceptance to inequality. For example, every constitution tells about law of equality and simultaneously it tells about exemptions for that law of equality. Men accepted it. There may be different reasons for those exceptions, but all of them are just excuses to not to implement equality. Men cannot say there is equality when some other is above or below equal.

Men are used to inequality. They don't realize that the society where they are living is no equality zone. Equality is just theoretical, idle and abstract concept, which never exists in society. In simple words, Equality is an illusion.

Three major problems of India

What are the 3 major problems of India? I asked this question to few people and they gave interesting answers. Everybody's answer is correct in their point of view. Those are influenced by their educational background, profession, surroundings etc. Some points are unconventional, different and I think those points resemble the root problems. It does not mean that other points are insignificant; I just wanted to focus on the points which are different from others and which are nearer to the root problems. Though the points look abstract in nature, when we start relating to the reality they become clearer. Those outstanding points are:

• Awareness among literates – by Pavan Kumar Bala
  
• Irresponsible behavior of educated citizens - by Santhosh Dharanagar
  
• Lack of public awareness – by Raj Sham
  
• Democracy in India – by Sunil Sharma
  
• Judiciary – by Samiulla Khan
  
• Election system – by Samiulla Khan
  
• Lack of social responsibility – by Ashwin
  
• Lack of proper Governance – by Bhagyaraj
  

Please click the below link to see everyone's responses:

http://poi-responses.blogspot.com/