Economic Reservation: Need of The Hour

Megha Maiti and Adrija Bhattacharya | KIIT Law School, Bhubaneswar | 10th November 2019

INTRODUCTION: WHY ECONOMIC RESERVATION

India is a country of diversity. People in this country come from different races and practice different beliefs. Dividing people on the basis of caste was embedded in our culture from the time immemorial. The belief that a certain section of people will pursue a certain standard of living has always bothered the educated minds of the nation. So, the caste based system was devised as a means for affirmative action which would help people oppressed by conventional caste system to break it’s shackle by ensuring representation and positive discrimination in the then dominant public sector. The Constitution of India hence pertaining to the said issue has provided certain fundamental rights under Article 15 and Article 16 and Directive principles of State policies under Article 46  for the protection of the socially backward class (SC/ST/OBC) of people .

Today several educational institutions and jobs have reserved seats for the upliftment of these socially backward classes of people. But the main question which arises here is that whether these reservations actually solve the purpose and develop the nation. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar gave up the right to a separate electorate on condition that Dalits and Tribals would be offered full citizenship. Reservation was only one of the policy instruments which was deviced to aid them in providing full citizenship. Considering the current scenario, we can analyse how far the Country has moved in that front. It has been seen that it is not only the Backward class people but also other general people who have trouble in getting the full citizenship. Thus, at many levels it can be concluded that it’s ethical and intellectual basis flows from different politics than mere welfare-ism. Hence keeping pace with the modern time it is not sensible to put the society in the same skeleton of reservation as it was sixty years back..

The solution to every problem is to strike it at its roots and the root problem behind the stagnant growth of the country is the parity in the economic status of rich and poor. It is the practical truth that India as a country is still developing and the economic strength is concentrated in the hands of few. Moreover the public sector has long vacated the commanding heights of the Indian economy and generated fewer employment. In other words it means that with the caste based reservation the competition among the general category increases and becomes fierce. It has also been observed in reality that people who actually need reservation fail to avail them and the ones availing them have all the means necessary to get the benefits even without the reservations. Hence, the need of the hour is such that economic reservations must be implemented to bring a uniformity in terms of availing opportunities and uplifting the poor across the nation.

Economic reservations will ensure that duly qualified candidates from depressed class are not deprived of the opportunity of appointment merely because they cannot succeed in open competition. If we see the present scenario in esteemed government colleges like AIIMS(s), IIT(s), IIM(s) we see that most people who go there because of the reservations on the basis of social status are not the ones who truly needs the reservation. It has often been seen that they have equal or sometimes even more access to opportunities like any other general candidates. Thus, giving benefits to those people becomes unfair on the part of the general candidates. Hence, in the given scenario economic reservations can solve both the purpose of positive discrimination and equal opportunities for all.

The Mandal Commission was established on 1^st January 1979 which mandated to “identify the socially and educationally backward class of people”. Hence it was due to this commission that the reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC) came into picture. Some academicians claimed that “socially valuable assets” are the basis of reservations and the OBC reservations were not justified on the grounds that they were dominant agrarian castes who were not completely alienated from the assets. If we take this argument into picture reservations for OBC does not hold much good rather it comes down as a bane for the general economically backward class of people as competition for them heavily increases and to a certain extent becomes unfair.

There is a popular criticism against reservation for economically backward class of people that it is a reservation for the upward class. Contrary to that is the fact that if reservation is provided to the people belonging to the economically backward class, it will help in reducing the economic parity between rich and poor. Thus, it will help our country to move ahead and walk the path of development.

  Moreover if reservation continues to happen on the basis of social status chances of formation of an inefficient bureaucracy emerges. Qualified and more efficient people will lose out on opportunities due to the reservation on the basis of social status and inefficient people might occupy higher ranks in the profession. This clearly is a hindrance to the National growth of the country. Although many a times it has been debated that reservation is not an anti-poverty scheme but if reservation in addition to representing the economically oppressed class also gives a helping hand in removing poverty then such positive changes must be welcomed by the nation. Although the primary function of Social reservation is to remove caste based discrimination in the nation but it is doing the opposite in the current scenario.  Social reservations is seen to propagate sub-nationalism as it is imposing a threat to the national unity hence, promoting caste based differences among the citizens.

Given the current situation of the society, economic reservation if implemented can bring more development in India and also decrease discrimination on the basis of caste, creed and sex. This approach of reservation in addition to providing reservation to the economically backward people additionally also helps in eradicating poverty from the nation.

124^TH AMENDMENT

The preamble which is the soul of the Constitution promises to all citizens social, economic and political justice. The economic status of citizens constitutes one of the three tests of backwardness. Poverty denies equality of opportunities to individuals in both spheres of education and employment. Hence, there is a strong need for making a provision of reservation for economically backward, to ensure them their share of opportunities to advance in life. Hence, keeping this in mind the government has bought the 124^th Amendment which provides 10% reservation for economically backward sections. This amended two fundamental rights-

• Article 15 which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, caste, sex or place of birth.
• Article 16 which provides discrimination in employment in government officials.

At present the economically weaker sections of citizens have largely remained excluded from attending the higher educational institutions and public employment due to financial incapacity to fight with the privileged people. The current reservation criteria of Article 15 and Article 16 were unavailable to them. Thus, in the said case reservation on the basis of economic status comes into play and 124^th Constitutional Amendment Bill is a measure of implementing the same.

The 124^th Amendment provides for 10% of reservation to the economically backward section of the society but this reservation is above the 50% reservation that currently exists for the socially backward people. Under this Amendment the reservation is provided to:-

• People having annual income of less than 8 lakhs; or
• agricultural land is less than 5 hectres; or
• Residential house is smaller than 1000 square feet and
• Residential plot smaller than 109 yards in notified municipality and smaller than 209 yards in non-notified municipality area.

Some of the significant issues which were raised by several people and the opponents are herein under:

• Constitutional Validity:

The Constitutional Validity of this reservation has been raised in several instances. The main question that has been raised is that this reservation is not in line with the basic structure of the Constitution as our constitution under Article 15 and Article 16 only provides for reservation for socially backward class of people. But the present quota has been bought through the 124^th Amendment Bill, which provides adequate Amendments in Article 15 and Article 16 of the Constitution, which allow for making “special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections of the citizens”. Hence, this reservation can stand the test of constitutionality in the Supreme Court.

• Legal Scrutiny:

Another major issue which has been raised in the implementation of the recent Act is the legal scrutiny. In the Indira Sawhney[1] case, a nine judge bench ruled that economic criteria cannot be exclusively used. The Supreme Court has also ruled multiple times against exceeding its 1992 formula of a maximum of 50 percent reservation. However, there are States like Tamil Nadu that go beyond this limit and the Supreme Court has upheld the state’s policy many a time. Currently, the State has a 69 per cent quota system.

• Reservation, not a poverty alleviation policy:

        Many critics claim that reservation is not a poverty alleviation policy or economic upliftment measure. Economic weakness is on account of social backwardness. The economic criteria will lead, in effect, to the virtual deletion of Article 16(4) from the Constitution.

• Passing of this bill driven by political motives rather than welfarism :

It has been pointed by many educated minds of the nation that the criteria mentioned for providing reservation is that the annual income of the family must be below Rs.8 lakh which basically involves majority of our population. It must also be noted that when it comes to paying of taxes 5% of taxes must be paid by people having income between 2.5-5 lakh. These two statements are in itself contradictory in nature because if people having income less than 8 lakh are considered to be economically backward then why do people having income starting from 2.5 lakh need to pay taxes. 

• Emergence of new economic class; the middle class:

The opponents to the ruling party have raised a point regarding the middle class people. With the 10 percent reservation system the major sufferers were the middle class people who were not although above the criteria of economically backward class but were not financially strong enough to fight with the privileged class in open competitions. This constituted a major chunk of the population

• The Reservation makes a little difference

It has been contended by several thinkers and academicians that due to increase in unemployment in corporate sector inequality has increased exponentially. Thus, in this scenario the present quota hardly makes any significant difference.

Thus, 124^th Amendment although is a constructive change for the upliftment of the nation but keeping in mind all the pros and cons of the 124^th Amendment we can sensibly conclude that although this might be a step towards economic reservation but it has several drawbacks like it exceeds the 50% reservation quota, it makes a very little significance to the huge poverty in the country, the conditions stated for this reservation is blurry. Thus, there is clearly a need for a better method, for implementation of reservation for economically backward class of people.

WHY ECONOMIC RESERVATION SHOULD SOON TAKE UP THE PLACE OF CASTE FOUNDED RESERVATION?

In order to understand the advantages of economic reservation it would be fruitful to draw our attention to the fact as to why reservation should exist at all. It is to promote the rapid growth and development of that section of the society that has been lagging behind as compared to the majority of the population. The system as is followed today keeps caste i.e. a birth of a person to a specific caste, to be the sole criteria as to why there should exist positive discrimination against them. Caste centric reservation destroys the importance of excellence.

• Reservation ought to be for the poor and underprivileged and should not include within its ambit the advantaged class of the minority communities. This generates a massive difference between similar classes of people of two different communities. Students sharing the same classroom, enjoying the same set of social functions and having similar economic standards should share the same privileges and one shouldn’t get an undue advantage based on the caste he or she is born to. Caste is anyway a societal construct which was a tool to oppress the majority of the population.
• The gap between the rural and the urban sectors could be lessened and brought to a uniformity if the poor section which in large numbers resides in our villages are given appropriate chance to develop. Even more prominently the economically weaker section of the urban population will duly benefit from such a scheme.
• People from developed financial group would stop getting the undue advantages that is so prominent these days. There is absolutely no substance as to why a child of an IAS officer should get the benefit of reservation. It is unjust to the youth of the nation at large.
• The rush for the minority certificates to get the advantages is at a steep rise. Economic reservation is the only possible way to curb it. So the bank accounts will speak and not the piece of paper which stamps you as an appropriate candidate for the policy schemes.
• Caste based reservation has anyway failed to bring the minorities into the position that had been dreamt of by our forefathers at the introduction of the caste based positive discrimination. There still exist in large numbers crimes against the minorities even after so many years of independence. It proves that caste based reservation is of no good in the progress of the socially backward class of the society. Thus there is an immediate need to change the way reservation works.
• Education will thus hold a rich position in the country rather than caste. With education a lot of social stigmas will breakdown into pieces which in turn will help solve the caste distinctions and the crimes that are committed in the name of caste.
• This policy of caste based reservation was supposed to be a temporary establishment which has now been stretched so far and the undue advantages are generated in the form of vote banks and unfair advantages to an already developed class. Reservation for the neglected was meant to be removed with proper development of that class of people but its affectivity is so poor that development of these people are still a far-fetched idea.
• Caste centric unrest in the society owes a great deal to such unjust reservation policies. The poor people from the general category have started viewing themselves as the victim of the system due to lack of seats in the government institutions; and the easiest targets have been the poor deprived class who hardly ever had anything to say about the existing system at all.
• Even after so many policies at work, the discrimination and atrocities against the minorities are at a rise. News reports are a witness to the failure of such existing policies.
• The deprived class of the society irrespective of the caste they belong to deserves to get policies in their favour so as to bring them at par with the rest of the society. Economy places a major role in the development of individual families as a unit of the society.
• The creamy layer ought to be prevented from taking undue advantages generations after generations.

A quick glimpse through the points tell us, that the economically weaker sections, for the benefit of whom the reservation policy first came into picture will still derive the assistance of the economic reservation. It is only the already advantaged class that is to be removed from the getting its benefits.

Now this approach mainly solves two major problems. Firstly, the poor who are in dire need of advancement and government resources will be the ones who actually receive it and secondly, the undeserved class who has been filling their own pockets through such schemes will be prohibited from continuing this any further.

This approach it seems is not taken into consideration because it isn’t healthy for the vote banks. The moment such a scheme is introduced a major part of the poor section will start revolting even though their interests are not at stake, but the strong instigation from the rich and powerful who would no longer derive unfair and undue advantages.

     Caste based reservation was introduced by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and he had mentioned its continuance for a period of 10 years in order to bring the socially and economically marginalized section of the society to the mainstream because the atrocities and the condition faced by the dalits, SCs, STs, OBCs were too humiliating and demeaning. They needed special attention to make sure a better future awaits, in a country where the caste system divides the nation into so many parts, the forefathers of our Constitution pledged to bridge such biased gap.

DISADVANTAGES OF CASTE CENTERED RESERVATION POLICIES

Economic reservation might sound like a good idea but what should be highlighted in here is the purpose of reservation. Reservation is the extra effort the government puts on some classes of people to make up for the deficiency of opportunities that they had faced for an extensive period.

People need time for their development and it is the government’s duty to take proper steps so that the marginalized sections are not left behind while the entire nation moves ahead.

• Caste based reservation tries to uproot the long standing social stigma from the heart of the society. These minorities had to face severe backlashes from the rest of the people and this in turn had led to the economic shortcomings. The Indian society even in this present era is heavily biased on the caste one is born into. From the very beginning the caste is stamped and the minority groups are heavily discriminated against.

Thus we can see a clear connection between caste and the socially backwardness. Thus only the continuance and effective implement of caste constructed reservation can render our society free from such distinctions. 

• The present reservation policies try to strike both caste and economically weaker sections and the creamy layer consists of a minuscule population. The constant argument of a creamy layer taking away all sorts of unfair advantages is completely skewed. This is because such a population can be very well neglected when we compare the entire minority group lagging behind. Every policy no matter what will have to deal with one or the other shortcomings. This is no valid reason as to why the policy should not exist at all.
• This also addresses the social inequalities that exist at the core of this society. Caste based reservation is the answer to bringing the long repressed class into the mainstream. They have been actively neglected and their needs and wants have been completely ignored for a very long time. They have suffered generations after generations and the opportunity that they need to stand at par with the rest of the society has to be guaranteed. A country cannot move forward when most of its tribal people are lagging behind. Thus is it not just for the community but for the overall development of the country.
• Social inclusion will come only if there is caste based reservation because empowering the backward section of the society with proper education and jobs will ensure a better lifestyle. Betterment isn’t the matter of a few years. The majority of our population needs time to develop on their own. Poverty eradication will take some time and the patience of our people should not dry away. They deserve such reservations in their favour to compensate for the lost chances.
• People from marginalised classes may not have adequate educational qualification to even apply for government jobs and it is a duly of the government to reserve some of its seats for people of the deprived section of the society. We cannot expect the socially backward classes to wake up one fine day and have an adequate educational base required for applying on a post that requires some minimum qualification criteria. That definitely would be great but unfortunately, cannot be a reality.
• Without ample financial aid in various manners, economic upliftment is difficult. Only if the government ensures for the marginalized section of the society certain benefits, they will be able to come at an equivalence with the mainstream. Benefits in the sectors of education, employment are some basic features that must be ensured for overcoming the long ignored shortcomings. There ought not to be a question of merit because, we will never know where the reserved category would have reached had they been given similar prospects and reliefs that most member of the general category relishes.

CONCLUSION: CASTE CENTRIC OR ECONOMY BASED RESERVATION IS THE ANSWER TO THE POVERTY THAT THE NATION FACES TODAY?

Reservation no doubt is necessary to promote the growth of the backward classes of the society, but the apex court has discouraged that it be done solely based on the caste. Economic factors are to be looked into before dealing with whether a particular group falls under the ambit of reserved or not. Caste based reservation passively also encourages the promotion of an individual’s caste and this leads to the disintegration of the nation into various parts all of which are not expected of a “…SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC”, as envisaged by the Preamble of the Indian Constitution and should not be encouraged.

Quota system existed even in pre-independence era and many of the Indian rulers had themselves introduced it in their kingdoms. Backward castes and communities deserve an opportunity to conquer their fate and walk hand in hand with the majorly developed inhabitants. But times have changed now and the country has progressed a lot in several fields over the time. Fitting the society in the same skeleton as it was 60 years back hinders the growth of the society. In today’s era if economic reservation is implemented then it will serve both the purpose of bringing the oppressed class ahead and also eradicating the poverty from the society.

There is nothing wrong with the concept of reservation- be it caste or economic. The question of whether caste based or economic is one of difficulty. Both policies would have some advantages and certain disadvantages. It is the balancing and analyzing of both that might give an answer. Caste reservation anyway seems to have miscarried in its objective and is also a contributing factor as to why economic reservation should be given a chance.

The Indian Government keeping in mind the above issue have introduced the 124^th Amendment which provided 10% reservation to economically backward class of people. Although the Amendment a step towards providing equal opportunities and eradicating economy but this Amendment came with its own set of challenges. The 10% reservation which was provided was over the 50% reservation already present for the economically backward class of people. This bought difficulties because in that case reservation percentage in States like Tamil Nadu rose up to 65%.

 We cannot assure somebody from an economically poor background to end up getting the same break through as others from a better financial background does unless it is the State which backs him up by providing opportunities to move ahead. Thus, the need of the hour is such that reservation must be given to those economically backward people who due to financial incapability stay behind the privileged class in open competitions. Thus, a proper implementation of the economic reservation must be made so that it can help in uplifting the nation’s economy, eradicating the poverty and most importantly provide opportunities to the economically backward class of people who are truly the oppressed class in the current era.

[1] AIR 1993 SC 477