Caste System And Reservations

                               We live in a country where surname is important, its not your achievements but the family you are born decides one's social standing. Caste is a powerful tool of self-identification in Indian society. Caste based discrimination in India is as old as country itself.

                            India adopted constitution in 1950 and provided "reservations" to the most downtrodden caste groups in social hierarchy for there upliftment and thus imparting social justice and bringing equality. Idea to provide reservations was to bring equality,development and social unity among masses thus concluding that caste consciousness would slowly wither away with time. Reservations which was meant to provide equality and unify society, actually ended up increasing the wedge.

                          Reservations undoubtedly provided relief to a section of targeted caste groups(beneficiary) but failed to bring social unification or untangling caste web in our society, on the contrary it further complicated things parting wedge further. The problem, as all too often in India, is politics. Caste based politics is a potent tool in the hands of politicians exploited to the hilt. In electoral democracy "reservations" became an election tool in the hands of politicians for population mobilization. With fewer government jobs and dwindling economy nowadays there's a competition among caste groups to be declared backward and get under the ambit of reservation.

  Reservation policy was implemented for social,economical,constitutional and political empowerment of lower castes. The irony of reservation quota is, it divided the society even more as the unreserved castes either want the reservations cancelled or to be included in the quota themselves and current beneficiary castes protect their quota percentage and resist inclusion(dilution of quota) of any new castes into their category. With increasing population and lesser jobs, the scuffle to get enrolled through reservations is only going to vitiate social environment . The mad rush to declare there castes socially and economically backward is only going to accentuate further. Gujjars of Rajasthan, Patels of Gujarat, Jats of Haryana and Kapus of Andhra Pradesh are just the beginning with many more castes will unite as vote banks to arm twist government for advancing there cause.

Category as per Government of India	Reservation Percentage as per Government of India
Scheduled Tribes (ST)	7.5%
Scheduled Castes (SC)	15.0%
Other Backward Classes (OBC)	27.0%
Total constitutional reservation percentage	49.5%
General	50.5%

                              Providing reservations to section of society ( 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent for SCs and STs respectively) was a social experiment for uplifting deprived castes who were allegedly suppressed for generations with equal opportunities and social equality, but the trouble began in 1990, when Parliament passed a law reserving another 27 percent of government jobs for members of "Other Backward Classes".  It's important to know the basis for reservation to any caste and the benchmark setup to distinguish are obscure. In the mid-1990s,Rajasthan's Jats community applied for inclusion in backward-classes quota. They cited, among other things, 1931 census data revealed child marriage in their community was more prevalent than among other official backward castes. 

                                                                     Jat Agitation 

                                 The primary objective of Indian reservation system was to provide enhanced  social,economical and educational opportunities to underprivileged communities but with more affluent communities seeking pie of reservation quota,it actually defeats the objective of classless Indian society. With brain dead politicians at helm,numerical strength of communities and there prowess to unleash terror will be the benchmark for inclusion of specific community in reservation quota in future. The Patel's in Gujarat, Jat's in Haryana are testimony to quota agitation.

                                                            Patel Agitation 

                                  In present scenario when every caste is in haste to be branded backward and logic is overruled by politics, there's a need to analyze the impact of reservations on our society. We should determine whether the past practices of 65 years (reservations was initially proposed for 10 years) yielded desired results. Some people argue to include economically weaker sections irrespective of caste be granted reservation. One most formidable alteration to reservation quota would be to abolish prevailing reservation on caste and give free and quality education till 12th to all the deprived and poor sections of the society (any caste, creed or religion),full scholarship to meritorious  candidates irrespective of caste and religion.