List of govt. policies regarding reservation
The best way to
implement reservation in Indian society is through government policies and laws
The exact
necessities for the reservation in favor of the members of the SC/ST/OBCs have
been made in the Constitution of India. They are as follows:
Article
15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution enabled both the state and Central
Governments to reserve seats in public services for the members of the SC and
ST, thereby, enshrining impartiality of opportunity in matters of civic
service.
Article 15(4)
states that: “Nothing in this Article shall prevent the State from making any
provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favor of any backward
class or citizens, which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately
represented in the services under the State.”
Article 16(4 A)
states that: “Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any
provisions for
reservation in
the matter of promotion to any class or classes of posts in the services under
the State in favor of SCs and STs which in the opinion of the State are not
adequately represented under the State”(Constitutional 77th
Amendment, - Act, 1995).
Article 16 (4
B) states that: “Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from
considering any unfilled
Vacancies of a
year which are reserved for being filled up in that year in accordance with any
provision for reservation made under clause (4) or clause (4A) as a separate
class of vacancies to be filled up in any
succeeding year
or years and such class of vacancies shall not be considered together with the
vacancies of the year in which they are being filled up for determining the
ceiling of fifty percent reservation on total number of vacancies of
that year” (Constitutional 81st Amendment, - Act, 2000).
The Constitution
prohibits discrimination (Article 15) of any citizen on grounds of religion,
race, caste, etc.; untouchability (Article 17); and forced labor (Article 23).
It provides for specific representation through reservation of seats for the
SCs and the STs in the Parliament (Article 330) and in the State Legislative
Assemblies
(Article 332), as well as, in Government and public sector jobs, in both the
federal and state
Governments
(Articles 16(4), 330(4) and 335). (Sukhadeo Thorat and Chittaranjan Senapati 2006)
Today, out of
543 seats in India's parliament, 84 (18.42%) are reserved for SC/Dalits and 47
(8.66%)for ST/Tribes. Allocation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Tribes in
the Lok Sabha are made on the basis of proportion of Scheduled Castes and
Tribes in the State concerned to that of the total population, vide provision
contained in Article 330 of the Constitution of India read with Section 3 of
the R. P. Act, 1950.
In 1982, the
Constitution specified 15% and 7.5% of vacancies in public sector and government-aided
educational institutes as a quota reserved for the SC and ST candidates
respectively for a period of five years, after which the quota system would be
reviewed.] This period was routinely extended by the succeeding governments.
. In 1990,
Prime Minister V. P. Singh announced that 27% of government positions would be
set aside for OBCs in addition to the 22.5% already set aside for the SCs and
STs after studying Mandal Commission’s recommendations
Mandal Commission protests of 1990
Mandal
commission protests of 1990 were against implementation of Mandal commission
i.e., 27% reservation quota
for OBC resulting in total 49.5% quota in government
jobs and public universities.
These protests
closed roads, highways, transportation services, government services, schools,
and businesses of India. Most of the student protests were planned publicly,
and in advance. Protest events gained widespread media attention through
newspapers locally and nationally.
2006 Indian anti-reservation protests
The 2006 Indian
anti-reservation protests were a series of protests that took place in India in
opposing the decision of the Union Government of India, led by the
Indian National Congress-headed multiparty coalition United Progressive
Alliance(UPA), to implement reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs)
in premier central and private institutes of higher education.
The government
proposed to reserve 27% of seats in the premier educational institutions of
India like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Other Medical
Colleges, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of
Management (IIMs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and other central
institutions of higher education for the OBCs in order to help them gain higher
levels of representation in these institutions. This move led to massive
protests, particularly from students and doctors belonging to the forward
castes, who claimed that the government's proposal discarded meritocracy, was
discriminatory, and was driven by vote-bank politics.
Popular opinion
Let's have a look at how the IITM students perceives caste based reservation in India .
They were asked about their opinion on the same.
The results of reservation
An examination the effectiveness of reservations by focusing on the
experience of the scheduled castes (SCs).
Percentage of SC Employees
in Central Government Services
Class
|
1959
|
1965
|
1974
|
1984
|
1995
|
I
|
1.18
|
1.64
|
3.2
|
6.92
|
10.12
|
II
|
2.38
|
2.82
|
4.6
|
10.36
|
12.67
|
III
|
6.95
|
8.88
|
10.3
|
13.98
|
16.15
|
IV
|
17.24
|
17.75
|
18.6
|
20.2
|
21.26
|
Sources: National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes, Seventh Report, April 1984 - March 1985, 5; Commissioner for Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Sixteenth Report, 1966-1967, 15; National
Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Fourth Report, 1996-1997
and 1997-1998, Volume I,14.
Class I, the
highest-paid level, includes members of the elite Indian Administrative Service
(IAS), the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), the Indian Police Service (IPS) and
connected Central Government services. In the next income bracket, Class II
employees comprise officers of the state civil service cadre. , Class III
employees comprise of primary school teachers, revenue inspectors, constables
clerks etc. Class III employees comprise of
low-skill, low-qualification
posts such as, peons, , drivers, and sweepers .
It is obvious from
above stats that there has been a steady increase in the
number of SC employees in the
course of time The SC presence in Class
I, for instance, has increased by
ten-fold, from 1.18 percent in 1959 to 10.12 percent in 1995. The Class II figures also show an upward trend from 2.38 percent in
1959 to 12.67 percent in 1995. Even the lowest
class, which initially had more SC employees in 1959 than any of the other
classes had in 1995, has had a slow rate
of increase.
SC Enrolment in
Undergraduate, Post-graduate, Technical and Professional Courses
Year
|
Total Enrolment
|
SC Enrolment
|
% SC Enrolment
|
1978-1979
|
2,543,449
|
180,058
|
7.08
|
1995-1996
|
7,955,811
|
1,058,514
|
13.30
|
Source: National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes, Annual Report: 1996-97 &1997-98, 60.
The enrollment
statistics for enrolment statistics for undergraduate, post-graduate, technical
and professional courses has improved drastically. But the SC are still under-represented, with only
13.30 percent enrolment This falls short of both the instructed reservation of
15 percent of seats as well as the proportion of SCs to the total population.
A state-wise breakdown
(Table 12) shows that even in states like Kerala, where universal education has
been, by and large, achieved, SCs still lag behind by 10 percent. However,
compared to the disparity in 1961 between the total population and SCs in
Kerala (approximately 22 percent), the gap
seems to be narrowing. In “Hindi belt” states like Uttar Pradesh, literacy
rates among SCs did not clear 30 percent in 1991. At 19.49 percent, SC literacy
in Bihar was even lower.
The fact that SCs are
still under-represented in government services and educational institutions (in
relation to the proportion they make up in the total population) undercuts the
goals of the reservations policy.
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