Is Caste a Commensurate Criterion for Reservations?

Reservations has always been a hot topic of discussion in India. Till date, almost all reservations including those for the admissions in professional colleges and entry to government services are all based on caste. From time immemorial there existed in India a caste capitalism, which over the years blocked the socio-ecnomic development of the lower castes, making them minorities (a group that enjoys less than its proportionate share of scarce resources).The aim of implementing reservations at the very core is to bring soical justice to people who have been denied opportunities historically to climb up in the socio-ecnomic spiral.So it is unobjectionable that SCs and STs are eligible for these reservations.

But what about OBCs?. They do not qualify into the definition of 'being denied of opportunities for betterment historically'. Even then the butter cake of reservation was thrown up to them .The 27% OBC reservation was implemented on the basis of the Mandal Commission estimate that 52% of the total population belong to OBC. The justification of forced proportional representation of a caste/community in any profession is highly unscientific and abstruse.The criterion for the exclusion of creamy layer in OBCs is too flawed, that almost everybody who is a backward caste by the accident of birth could pass the Income/wealth test and be eligible for reservations.Thus the well-to -do among the backward castes becomes the key beneficiaries of these schemes.

Demographic Trends

In order to target the benefits to the needy and fine-tune the reservation policy,exact numerical info of all castes in necessary. To settle endless issues on the size and backwardness of various communities, the exact information on their socio-economic status is vital. The demand of enumeration of OBC in census is strongly backed by leaders and parties representing the politics of OBC assertion, with a hope for an increase in expected count of OBCs and hence demand for a higher percentage reservation. For this very reason Hindutwa groups are dead against this reform, calling it a colonial practice.

The demographic trends indicate that the percentage of OBCs are on a raise every year.Though this is not a conscious effort from the part of any community to turn the social demography to their favour, this is an issue worth watching. It is beyond question that the OBC political fraternity will come up with a demand of increase in proportional representation once their percentage share of population go beyond the Mandal commission estimate of 52%. But experts consider that this is unlikely to happen as National sample survey estimated the percentage of OBCs only as 36% in 99'-00' and 41% in 04'-05'.To implement a reform in the reservations system, the most essential pre-requisite is the enumeration of castes in census. Not just OBCs, but all castes. Upliftment of the oppressed being the basic idea behind all these schemes, the information on who is oppressed and who need to be empowered is vital.


Devising a new Criterion for Reservation based on MPI Data

Six decades since Independence, the issue of oppression of lower castes by higher castes is of little relevance in Urban India. But this issue is still relevent in the rural areas of the sub-continent.Now discussing the need of a new criterion for the implementation of reservations in India on the basis of wellness indicators other than caste, is very relevant. Especially in the context of the recent studies of the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) on the basis of Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

According to OPHI "Multidimensional poverty encompasses a range of deprivations that a household may suffer.Most countries of the world define poverty by income. Yet poor people themselves define their poverty much more broadly, to include lack of education, health, housing, empowerment, humiliation, employment, personal security and more. No one indicator, such as income or caste, is uniquely able to capture the multiple aspects that contribute to backwardness or poverty.Alkire Foster Method identifies who is poor by considering the intensity of deprivations they suffer, and includes an aggregation method. The method is flexible and can be applied to measure poverty or well being, target services or conditional cash transfers and for monitoring and evaluation. Different dimensions (e.g. education) and indicators (e.g. how many years of education of person has) can be chosen depending on the society and situation."

MPI Table of States of India [Click to Enlarge]

Extreme diversity in all walks of life is a key feature of Indian social set up. The OPHI studies in fact shows that our country is made up of different nations stretching from middle income Asian nations to starving sub-Saharan nations. A comparison of state-level and country-level data from the newly released multi-dimensional poverty index shows that the conditions of the states Kerala and Goa are close to that of Paraguay and the Philippines.At the same time Somalia, where 300,000 people died in a famine in the early 1990s, performs slightly worse than Bihar while Sierra Leone, the world's third worst performer on the Human Development Index, is at roughly the same level. When such a diversity in MPI exist in our country,is it not nonsensical to have a common criterion for the implementation of upliftment programs ?. When these programs end up being insufficient in some states they may turnout being tools of reverse discrimination in other states.

Comparison of Bihar with Kerala [Click to Enlarge]

This chart very much brings out the problems in considering India as a whole while enforcing policies like reservations. The fruits of reservations have already reached many millions belonging to once backward communities and it is still out of the reach for many others. In many states the oppressed among the forward community, remain excluded from these upliftment programs for the only reason of the accident of birth as an upper caste. If empowerment of the real oppressed is the motive behind the implementation of upliftment programs, it is time to devise a new criterion, considering more wellness indicators beyond caste and target benefits of reservations to the needy.

References

1. Alkire, Sabina & Maria Emma Santos. 2010. India Country Briefing. Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Multidimensional Poverty Index Country Briefing Series. Available at: www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/mpi-country-briefings/

2. Global multidimensional poverty - OPHI’s interactive world map
http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index

3. National Commission for Backward classes (NCBC) - Persons/Sections Excluded from Reservation which constitute Creamy Layer of the Society. Available at : http://ncbc.nic.in/html/creamylayer.htm

Unvieling the Freedom of Choice

A Response to Martha Nussbaum's 'Veiled Threats?'



Considering Burqa as a moral and religious obligation is more or less a form of coercion against women. The right of a MUSLIM to 'wear Burqa' as it is a religious norm is heavily out-weighed by the right of a WOMAN to 'not to wear Burqa', as it is her freedom of choice and expression. The argument that the tremendous cultural pressure to market oneself as a sex object, can be resisted only by wearing a lot of covering is totally unjustified.The basic underlying force that bulldoze Burqa on women is the chauvinistic male attitude that they possess the body of their female partner. Is this not the real 'objectification' of women?. Legal ban of Burqa by France was a right move, as this freedom of choice cannot be achieved otherwise.

A Heartless Reform

'Mistimed and insensitive', this is how 'The Hindu' defined the UPA's decision to deregulate oil prices.The statement very much explains almost everything about this issue. Calling this action 'inevitable' sounds even more insensitive. According to Mr.Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor to the Finance Minister, "this reform will rationalise the way we spend money and fuel and will help India become a more efficient global player".The statement shows how much UPA has moved away from the much applauded pro-poor status, it has gained during their first tenure in the ministry.The prime minister's justification is that this reform is intended to safeguard the greater interests of our country. A very relevant question in this context, when the food inflation has touched a whooping 17 p.c is, 'who are we trying to include in the so called inclusive growth?'. The ministry is in fact trying to veil the cascading effect this fuel price hike can have on the prices of commodities.With the inflation curve climbing northwards everyday, this is undoubtedly the worst time for the implementation of such a reform.

The Petroleum Minister Murli Doera's argument that the implementation of this reform aims at saving the OMCs from bankruptcy is also unjustified.According to Petroleum Ministry's annual report, IOC posted a net profit of Rs. 10,998 crores in FY 2009-10 that too after holding the price line for the four major products – petrol,diesel, PDS kerosene and LPG for domestic use.BPC and HPC earned 834 crores and 544 crores respectively as profits in the same Financial Year. When the OMCs are making profits of this margin, the theory of these companies going bankrupt is hard to digest.

It is estimated that without the deregulation, for OMCs the subsidy burden is to produce an under-recovery of around 15,000 crores in FY2010 and around 39,000 crores for the FY2011. This fancy term 'under-recovery' can generate an idea in the mind of a common man reading these statistics that this 'price de-regulation is inevitable' .Under recovery is nothing but the difference between the import parity price [A price charged for a domestically produced good that is set equal to the domestic price of an equivalent imported good -- thus the world price plus transport cost plus tariff - courtsy:http://www.personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/i.html] and the retail price of petrol, diesel,LPG & kerosene, before deregulation. Quoting The Hindu "Under-recoveries are notional losses that only lower book profits relative to some benchmark. Thus, there is little danger that the industry would be bankrupted even if prices were kept at their earlier levels".

When the inflation is rocket shooting to super-high levels,it is highly insensitive to make the common man share the burden of these under-recoveries by imposing the de-regulation on oil prices. The cascading effect of this price de-regulation on the price-hike of essentials have far reaching consequences. The concept of food security cannot be limited to distribution of foodgrains at subsidised rates to BPL families and fuel-price hike connot be de-linked from this.This insensitive reform is infact a denial of the basic right of a human being, 'food security'. The government must not forget the fact that, 77% of our population earn not more than Rs.20 a day for their survival. Whatever may be the reason, keeping their interests hostage is a highly callous and politically self-damaging act.