RE-IMAGINING RESERVATION POLICY : BUILDING A SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT INDEX ( SDI ) FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH.

   

    Imagine a multi storeyed building with no entry and no exit, and the people living in such a structure might have bodily growth but, what about the mind and soul? It will be a fixed canvas or a stagnant water prone to contamination, if such a structure is present in a society as a social institution, then, it produces only bodies but not minds. The caste system of India or the varnashrama dharma has resulted in exactly this. Recently, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Justice B.R. Gavai has proposed the introduction of creamy layer among the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) and deny them the reservation benefits but, I believe he has taken a myopic view on the matter because of unique challenges being faced by the marginalized sections. 

 THE CRACKS IN THE RESERVATION POLICY:

     Firstly, Indian constitution allows the state to provide reservation for backward classes of citizens including the SCs, STs who are inadequately represented in state services, hence, shifting the narrative of reservation policy from being a tool of representation and social justice to a central sector scheme or a poverty alleviation programme is nothing but ‘malleating the constitution’. Secondly, according to the official data by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, there is a huge underrepresentation of SCs, STs and OBCs in Bureaucracy with almost 79 % of Highest Policy-Making Roles have been ‘over represented’ by General category individuals and the same can be said with respect to judiciary as well with 77% judges from General Category, 12% from OBC, 3% from SC and a meagre 2% from ST (Ministry of Law and Justice). Thirdly, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Department on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, in its 112th Report to the Rajya Sabha, noted “At present there is no single nodal agency in the Central Government to monitor backlog vacancies in various ministries/Departments”. The above three points highlight the dismal state of affairs with respect to the effective implementation of the Reservation Policy. 

 CASTE AND DRAIN OF WEALTH 

     Creamy layer concept among the SCs and STs would not be desirable in the current social context because, the caste system has positive correlation with respect to wealth as one move from below towards the top and vice-versa, this doesn’t mean that there exist no poor persons but in the marginalized, it only shows that relative poverty is less as one move from bottom to the top in a caste hierarchy. For example, the recent ‘honour’ killing case of 27-year-old Kavin Selvaganesh, a Scheduled Caste man from Tamil Nadu and the hacking of Dalit student’s hands reportedly for riding a ‘Bullet’, these cases have highlighted that caste is still a reality for many and also the adverse economic impact of caste on marginalized sections resulting in ‘Drain of wealth, the wealth may be in the form of money, education, land, representation and health both bodily and psychological. Hence, Caste drains the wealth from the oppressed and restores it to those who are already privileged. This doesn’t mean that creamy layer concept among the SCs and STs must not be implemented at all as some sort of a holy dictum, it can be done by converting Reservation Policy as a Social Development Index (SDI).

 RESERVATION POLICY AS A SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT INDEX (SDI) 

     Although many significant changes have been undertaken in reforming the Indian society and addressing the Caste issue through abolition of untouchability, providing reservation in Panchayats, Parliament and State Assemblies but, the desired levels of reforms have not been brought by any regimes from first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to current hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Caste continues to thrive and has appears to be more galvanized in the past decade. The time is ripe to bring in this reform. 

 Firstly, Social Development Index consists of three parameters, Representation, Women Empowerment and finally the Percentage of Inter-caste marriages, many other parameters that seems fit can be included but these should remain at the core. Secondly, Caste census must be made, as a mandatory part of 5-year Social Development Plan that is a sub-plan under the SDI, gathering the empirical data with regards to the representation of marginalized sections along with leveraging the use of Digital infrastructure and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to ease the financial pressure. Women empowerment including bridging the Gender gap, Health, Education, increasing the Women Labour Force Participation Rate (WLFPR) and increasing their representation in Parliament to 50% must be considered. 

The most significant challenge of this index is increasing the percentage of Inter-caste marriages as caste continues to remain a highly sensitive issue, this can be achieved through strong political will. Phased changes in the Reservation Policy could be made while exploiting it as an index. If, the percentage of inter-caste marriages reach more than 40 % then, creamy layer concept would be favourable as many would by then have considerable access to resources as a result of inter-caste marriages and restructuring of caste networks, at 70%, Reservation benefits can be limited to one or two generation and at more than 90% the entire reservation policy could be made on the basis of economic criteria. 

Stress on Inter-caste marriages is socially, genetically, and nationally feasible as it leads to genuine unity of the Indians, Social democracy and ushers in a true democratic politics based on genuine and relevant issues. As Dr. B.R. Ambedkar famously said “Caste is a state of mind”, hence the clear indicator of ‘Annihilation of Caste’ is an Inter-caste marriage and must be promoted through dialogue and deliberations with all stakeholders for a ‘Viksit Bharat’.