Should Reservation System Be Abolished In India?

When Dr. B.R.Ambedkar drafted the Constitution of India, the society was different back then. People who belonged in the now ST/SC/OBC community were discriminated and were not given education, job opportunities or any facilities because of the traditional, societal and political norms it existed back then.

The term “untouchability” was very popular among the elites of the Indian Society like the Beatles during the 1960s. Dr B.R.Ambedkar, drafted the constitution, he made sure that every citizen of the sovereign received equal treatment and equality before the law. Article 14 i.e. Right to Equality, Article 15 i.e. Prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religion, caste, sex, race and place of birth, Article 16 i.e. Equality of opportunity in the matters of public employment and Article 17 i.e. abolishment of untouchability. These are the fundamental rights and if their rights were violated by the private individual or even the government then the aggrieved person can seek remedy under Article 32 in the Supreme Court and Article 226 in the High Court, through the writ petition.

So, in the current day and age of the society, people are raising the question. Do we still need the reservation system? And although the caste based discrimination still persists in the society, the reservation system is now becoming problematic and often times toxic.

In modern age, the current reservation system has led to the rise of brain drain because a lot of talented people are being cheated out of the system that rewards the undeserving in jobs and educational institutions because of the system. For example, I gave my CLAT exams in 2017, and I have got 60 out of 196. I didn’t get admission to a National Law University which I could understand and I’ve accepted my fate.

However, there were candidates who’ve scored less than me like 55, 56, 57 etc. and they were getting admission in the second or third list. The catch was, they were from the ST/SC/OBC community and I was in the General Category. This shows how fractured the reservation system really is. The rich and elites from the ST/SC/OBC could misuse this system and would get admission in colleges or job placements and the poor from the said community and even the general community would be in the worst position.

The system lacks any transparency because a lot of the people from the OBC community have not been listed by the government. It’s because of this lack of transparency, politicians have used this system in the worst manner just so they can get votes from the community of SC/ST/OBC.

So the question arises. Does the current reservation system need to be abolished? I think it needs to be reformed and if not then yes, it should be abolished. The system destroys meritocracy and the talented people migrate to other countries. They feel like all the efforts they put into the already fractured education system are a waste. The politicians took Dr. Ambedkar’s well-intention system and turned it into a time bomb.

The Mandal Commission and the 69% reservation in Tamil Nadu have given a lot of people a bad taste in their mouths. I can say that reservation should be done on the basis of economic and financial basis regardless of community or caste instead of caste. We can’t get rid of this outdated caste system if we’re giving it on the basis of caste. Even Dr. Ambedkar wanted the abolition of caste system but had to relent because of the government politics. So in conclusion the reservation system needs to be given on the basis of financial and economic status and merit rather than on the basis of caste. The outdated and backward caste system which were made in the Vedas’ time must go as well. That’s all I have to say.

References:

https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/society/commissions-for-backward-classes-in-india-essay/4354

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_policy_in_Tamil_Nadu#:~:text=Total%20Reservation%20percentage%20stood%20at%2069%25.%20Supreme%20Court%2C,M.%20Vijayan%20on%20behalf%20of%20VOICE%20Consumer%20forum.

GDPR. (n.d.). Byjus. https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/fundamental-rights/

Sharma, A. (2021, February 15). Is The Line Between Reservation Policy And Protective Discrimination Too Thin? Youth Ki Awaaz. https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2021/02/protective-discrimination-reservation-policy-in-india/

Ghosh, P. (2018, April 5). Disadvantages of reservation system in India. MastiHub. https://mastihub.com/list/disadvantages-of-reservation-system-in-india#:%7E:text=The%20reservation%20system%20is%20so%20corrupt%20and%20is,and%20those%20who%20are%20socially%20and%20economically%20backward.

G. (2017, June 13). Dr. B.R. Ambedkar views on Abolition of Caste System in India. Legal Desire. https://legaldesire.com/dr-b-r-ambedkar-views-on-abolition-of-caste-system-in-india/

This article has been written by Anish Bachchan, student at Amity University.

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