Reservations have no merit (or, India’s deepening crisis of selection)
Not a single political party of any consequence has had the courage to caution the government against deepening India’s entitlement economy (via Secular Right). When courts ruled against reservations in private educational institutions deeming them unconstitutional, parliament amended the constitution. The next target — and perhaps the biggest — is the private sector. If the populists have their way, the government of India will soon decide who private companies can hire. At a time when it needs to liberalise its labour laws to make industry more competitive and create employment, the Indian political system is veering towards doing just the opposite. Government interference in business decisions of private companies is not only perverse, but is widely acknowledged to have been a failure. It is widely acknowledged to be a failure not just in some country half-way across the world, but in India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may go down in history as the man who took the Indian economy out of one dark dungeon, allowed it to experience a tantalising breath of freedom, only to plunge it into another, darker dungeon.
The case against reservations goes beyond just economics. It is fundamentally about the principles around which India organises its society. Equality of all citizens is among the most fundamental of these principles. The argument for affirmative action — of which job and college seat reservations are manifestations — is that social, cultural and historical wrongs have left some communities more unequal than others. Reservations, the argument goes, help create the equality of opportunities. It is undeniable that the reservation policy, especially in the early years of the Indian Republic, helped empower large segments of India’s population which, for various reasons, had been cut off from political, economic and social opportunity. So did land reforms. But it is also undeniable that this system of reservations is now largely perverted by ceaseless pork-barreling. The absurdity of this can be seen from the fact that the number of ‘backward’ communities has skyrocketed, more communities each year clamour for the exalted status of being designated ‘backward’ and even ‘forward’ communities are seeking reservations to secure for themselves a piece of the pie. Far from creating equality of opportunity, when extended in such a pervasive manner, reservations have ended up creating the exact opposite.
One reader questioned why merit should be so important. He also mistook merit for performance in high school examinations. Merit is important because it is very often the only objective measure of a person’s potential to do a job. If the purpose is to have a winning cricket team, then it is far better (and far easier) to select a player based on his domestic record than on the basis of the community which he is born into. Of course, you don’t choose the cricketer based on his high-school grades, but on his domestic record — an objective measure of merit for the purpose concerned. What applies to cricket teams applies to management-, R&D- and sales teams too. Neither the Indian cricket team nor the Indian firm can succeed in hyper-competitive international contests if they choose anything other than merit to compose their teams.
But is it correct to interpret performance in say, high-school or entrance examinations as merit? In other words, is merit being measured correctly? As far as the private sector is concerned, it should be free to use whatever qualifications it sees fit to select employees. Where there is concern for public safety, like in the case of certain engineering professions or health, government does have a role in setting standards, but not in picking candidates. For the vast majority of private-sector jobs though, the government must yield to the simple truth that the employer not only knows how best to spend his money, but more importantly has the sole right to do so. (See GreatBong)
But should the government use exam scores as the sole metric of merit while selecting its own employees? Here there is a case for expanding the selection criteria to take into account various other factors like participation in social service and uniformed groups or achievements in sporting, artistic and other fields. Converting these into convenient, comparable metrics is not easy. Nevertheless, the selection criteria for public servants can be expanded to include various extra-curricular achievements that extend the scope of merit to something less academic in orientation. While this is a case for broadening the definition of merit, it is not quite the same of dispensing with merit and choosing entitlement instead.
India is facing a crisis of selection. It is clear that the culture of entitlement is pervasive in society and a vote-winner for the political class. But it is also a course that is certain to cause India, yet again, to lose the ticket to prosperity and development that every generation feels is within its grasp yet somehow slips out of its hand. In reality, it’s not slipping out at all. It’s being snatched out of their hands by a self-serving political class. Written constitutions are designed to help prevent such perversion. In the next few months, India’s will face one of the stiffest challenges yet.
vivekanand,
I agree with you that the one on top of reservation the mudaliars, chettiars etc. have bridged the discrimination gap. I also agree that these are folks who dont need much reservation anymore. That is why I cite Tamil Nadu as an example of a state which has covered some distance in leveling the social playing field. Also if you see the BC category of reservation, they are almost on par with the FC category in terms of cut-off marks. I think this is testimony that after some years of reservations “merit” as many people talk among those communities do come on par with open category. I think this is proof that things have improved for the BC communities.
The OBCs are an entirely different ballgame. If you take the farmers, artisans (traditional and therefore a lot of chettiar sub communities like devangas), weavers, peasants, potters their situation is still the same as it was 50 years back. Just marginal difference. For as much as we are convinced about SC/STs where there is a no doubt about their reservation, there is no effort done to include the OBCs into the reservation category (except for tamil nadu). When north India was burning (courtesey mandal who advocated 50% reservation), TN already had 69% reservation in professional courses and 75% in some courses like law.
This is one of the reasons why TN is a more eavenly developed state compared to many other in India. We started the ball for social re-organisation and the ball will continue rolling till the tasks are fully achieved.
Having been a close observer of the social scenario in tamil nadu, I dont see this long term reservation regime bringing down the quality of workforce in tamil nadu. Infact, TN leads other states like maharashtra in many industries. I dont give therefore more credence that reservations bring down quality of workforce. Sample this, TN has one of the best healthcare records in the couuntry. This according to WHO.
Why reservations ? the economic logic is self evident.
If you bring more people into economic mainstream, the greater will be consumption and growth.
The social logic is in the proof of the pudding. If education makes people think and read and understand the world much better, it will give them self confidence to question the things that happen in their world. It would help people to take hold of their destinies than just play crowd.
Remember, the OBCs consititue the largest of all caste segments, though they are fragmented into multitudes of castes. The day they come togather, you will see a second revolution. I think it is good for India to channelise these revolutions into peaceful democratic way (like the ahinda movement in karnataka) than in violent upheavel of society (like the naxal revolution threatening the country or the earstwhile revolution by peasants during the rashtrakutha dynasty).
The OBCs togather form more than 45% of the population.
vasu
The reason why the “cut-off” marks for BCs is now almost equal to the FCs is …(drum roll, please) because what used to constitute FCs is now the bulk of those calling themselves BCs. With just about every community that can afford to clamoring to make that jump to avail of benefits. Benefits meant for an entirely different group which remain underserved and denied of progress as the fat cats eat and drink their fill, ask for more, and join the general blaming of the brahmins while absolving themselves.
Alternately, the very fact that the cut-off marks are about equal is good reason to discontinue the current scheme as those that need help have shown they don’t need help. Reorient the scheme to help those that do need it and remain on the sidelines…
What else can you expect when that happens?
I guess those that trot out this lame reason won’t be happy until the FC cut-off marks drop far below the BCs. For them that would constitute progress!
TN was a leader in state economy through the sixties. It declined precipitously, losing ground to Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Punjab for two+ decades (precisely during the period you tout so blindly). It is only in the last several years that it has recovered ground and that is owing to leadership, geography (proximity to Bangalore, Singapore, and a manufacturing base) all of which have nothing to do with reservations.
Vasu,
I guess you are not going to defend your “eating snails”, “brahmins hoarding power, knowledge and education” statements. So let that be.
Tamilnadu is more even than other states, who told you so ? If equality means crushing of a particular community than yes – you are right. If equality means helping those who have been really deprived, then TN is the worst off.
Dalits are nothing in Tamilnadu. Have you heard of Keeripatti and Paapapatti ? How many Dravidian movement leaders are Dalits ?
So what is your final statement ? You want the creamy layer excluded ? Tough luck. The entire Dravidian movement is against that. Have you heard of a non-creamy-layer certificate ? Probably not. Let me tell you – It is required for OBCs in Kerala to avail benefits. If you think something like that will come to TN – keep dreaming.
Tamilnadu shows the finger to 50% reservation as well as to the creamy layer removal requirements in the Mandal report. No one can do anything about it.
My friend – all the weavers, potters, from OBC communities have NO CHANCE against OBCs who attend American International, Lovedale, Good Shepard, Padma Seshadri.
You might point out an exceptional one or two potters, weavers getting through – as a defense. This is in fact an argument for discountinuing the system for OBCs (or put severe monitoring in place to prevent abuse).
Neither will happen, because this whole thing is a bait-n-switch game.
As far as brahmins are concerned, please do some research before painting with such a broad brush. Baring two families (TVS and Amalgamations) – they are almost crushed in all spheres of public life. Do not have any delusions about it. The dominal social IP (your term) today is one of ridicule. Have you seen any tamil movies lately ? Have you listened to two hours of ridicule on Suryan (DMK owned) FM *daily* ?
Final question : How do you propose to end reservations for a castes like Mudaliars ? They founded the DMK and still dominate. They can easily compete and beat brahmins hands down in any aspect of education.
Offering women — who comprise roughly 50% of society — the benefits of affirmative action will go further, a long way further, in advancing social progress than what is being done today or envisaged in “new” schemes. Is there any doubt that women, regardless of which community they belong to, have long been denied benefits?
Educate a man, you educate a person. Educate a woman, you educate several generations.
I guess this won’t happen because such benefits can only be obtained through voting power and economic influence and the ability to disrupt others lives. Something those in today’s BC category and those clamoring to get that demonstrably show. Something that women in general and as a group don’t. Something the brahmins don’t. When was the last time you could say that about those in the BC set? And you call that progress?
It is a tragedy that a program meant for social upliftment of those long denied was hijacked by others, far less deserving, who continue the misinformation, diatribes, and pogroms against the brahmins to skillfully distract attention away from themselves. State-sanctioned, society-approced bigotry. There is no other way to describe it. Witness Germany of the 1920s and 1930s for a different way to achieve the same…except that you read that in history books and you see this around you today, right now.
I read your article a while back, and agreed with your argument. However, I felt it wasn’t forceful enough, since the argument was overlooking a few important aspects of the issue. I just now came across another article, that covered a few more points – please look it up, if you are interested:
http://blogchaat-currentaff.blogspot.com/2006/01/reservations-are-they-justified.html
hello:
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hello:
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