Muhammad Elyass
As you all are aware of the fact that our societies have been divided into different classes and segments on the basis of their physical, social and financial backgrounds. There are mainly four categories our societies have been divided: The Unreserved, SC and ST and OBC, out of the four, the latter three are enjoying all the privileges, subsidies and reservations in every field even if they are better off. It’s not wrong to provide a reservation to any specific group of society in some conditions but it should be provided in a fair and justified manner. There are families where almost all the members are government employees, their socio-economic status is better than anyone else, and every other thing is available to them in abundance and of great quality still they are falling under reserved categories, which isn’t right in any way. They were given such reservations in order to address historical injustices and social inequalities faced by them, and to provide them equal opportunities for education and employment, however the present status of the matter is deplorable. The primary objective of this classification was to ensure justice and equality but the said classification has become the main source of injustice and inequality between the unreserved and the reserved categories. Primarily, they were subject to social, economic and political oppression. They were deprived of basic human rights, education and other opportunities for progress. But right now, such a situation doesn’t exist anymore. All are equal under law and the infringement of personal or legal rights of any individual is a wrongful act and there are punishments and proper procedures of filing a suit against the defendant.
You all may be aware of the fact that the rate of unemployment in India is unusually high and the government is not creating enough openings for employment according to the unemployment scenario. Once there comes any job notification, a huge chunk of reserved and unreserved students rush to the online portals, pay huge amounts of money in order to grapple the opportunity and make their name in the list. Everyone is looking for a job and everyone is compelled to do everything.
However the truth is that a larger percentage of declared posts remains for reserved students, and yes the unreserved students go on fighting a bitter war against each other to secure a seat. Students from both the categories work hard, sacrifice their sleep and other pleasures to get a job but there are rare chances for the unreserved ones to get in. The reason behind this is that the current reservation policy is not fair and reasonable. They are losing out on opportunities due to the ongoing system of reservation. Here my question is, on what scales and for what purposes they are given reservation these days, just to spoil the ambiance and making the younger generation of unreserved categories depressed.
Some of the castes like Gujar, Shiekh, Kumar, Dom, Nai, Teli and so on fall under the same umbrella but it doesn’t mean that as their ancestors were engaged in some low level works and their future generations will be forced to carry the same role or they are supposed to do this job only. No, not at all, they can adopt any role of their choice as they do. Attaining knowledge is obligatory upon all and it sets some responsibilities on us and one of the responsibilities of acquiring knowledge is to respect the rights of others, guide others for something good and worthy, and to inculcate the spirit of brotherhood within.
For instance, in a community there are 5 nuclear families belonging to one of the above castes and where each family is headed by a government servant, their wives the housewives and their children are young, who have the right to get education anywhere across India, and even they have access to all the resources that anybody form the non-reserved category has, but they all chose to follow the profession of their forefathers. There is one thing I would like to say here is that they had the opportunity to upgrade their status but despite having all the means of upgradation, they all deliberately refused to do so and due to all this they continued to fall under the ambit of the reserved section of society, which is not anyone’s default but their own will and choice, and in return the government is neither lifting reservation from them nor taking any steps to alter the reservation policy, which is completely wrong and unbearable.
Personally, I think that the government shall revisit the subject of reservation by considering the correspondence of SES of each household covered in the category of reserved castes once again. If the household’s socio-economic status is well and okay, the reservation should be lifted from them in order to establish a more fairer and equitable society. The current reservation structure is producing social and economic disparities and problems of meritocracy. It is essential to do a periodic review of the reservation policies in order to achieve fairness and address the issues, and look for approaches that can strike a balance between the social equity and the meritocracy. This could involve focussing on inclusive education, skill development, and targeted welfare programs for all, regardless of their caste or category.
Along with these measures, it is also significant to continuously evaluate and enhance reservation policy implementation. This can be done by bringing the stakeholders together to gather feedback and by monitoring the impact on different sections of society and making adjustments so that the policies remain relevant and effective towards social and economic inequalities.
Through such an approach, we will aim at creation of a more equitable and merit-based society where individuals would not be kept back by their backgrounds or social conditions but will be assessed on their abilities and achievements.
The author can be reache at muhammadilyass789@gmail.com
