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The Flawed Logic Of Quotas
MADHU PURNIMA KISHWAR, Mar 20, 2010, 12.21am IST
The champions of the highly flawed women's reservation Bill are facing
a tough challenge from leaders of the Muslim community and castes
designated as backward. They argue that only upper caste women from
elite families will benefit from this reservation and demand a quota
within quota for backward caste women and Muslims.
In characteristic style, the pro-reservation lobby has reacted with
pious outrage, declaring: ''Please do not try dividing us. Women are
all one; their interests are common.'' By polarising the issue on
gender lines, the pro-reservationists have actually exposed the
weakness in their own ranks. They claim to speak on behalf of all of
India's women. But the quota within quota demand clearly indicates
that on most issues women's loyalty to their caste and community is
far stronger than their commitment to gender-based solidarity. This is
understandable since women do not constitute a homogeneous group. The
disabilities they suffer are largely dependent on the overall status
of the caste, class, religious and regional community within which
they are situated.
In a multi-ethnic, multilingual, multi-religious, multi-caste society
with wide disparities, there are bound to be ever newer claimants for
reservations, especially considering the poor state of governance in
India, the lack of basic security, especially for women, and
widespread nepotism. The government machinery remains colonial in its
functioning because it is not constituted to be accountable and
responsive to the rights of citizens as citizens. Acquiring a foothold
in the government machinery brings with it enormous clout and
opportunities for upward mobility through means fair and foul. People
perforce have to mobilise themselves as communities in order to gain a
measure of protection and privilege. Those who cannot pull strings
through their caste and family ties feel vulnerable and thwarted.
The resultant vicious tussles over gaining a foothold in offices of
power have made virtually every group feel aggrieved and insecure.
Therefore, it does not take much effort to mobilise new groups to
demand their share of the pie.
For example, while one section of Muslims demands a quota for Muslim
women in general, another section argues that within women's quota
there should be a fair proportion reserved for lower castes among
Muslims. They claim that caste is as deep-rooted and entrenched among
the subcontinent'
caste Muslim leaders responsible for keeping the lower caste Muslim
community trapped in backwardness and illiteracy by their obsessive
focus on identity-based demands ignoring class and caste deprivations.
Therefore, they are demanding that the benefit of a Muslim women's
quota should go to lower caste Muslim women so that the most oppressed
among them get to be heard and represented. Similarly, there is a
demand that there be a sub-quota for women of the most backward castes
(MBCs) since thus far the advantages of reservations have been mainly
cornered by the creamy and well-organised layers among backward
castes.
The logic of quotas can be extended indefinitely in a malfunctioning
democracy to transform it into what Bhanu Pratap Mehta terms a
''Quotacracy'
well as for women afflicted by leprosy - for they are treated worse
than pariahs? Why not a quota for women beggars, for prostitutes, for
those defamed as ''criminal tribes''? The list of marginalised groups
is indeed endless and they are indeed very vulnerable.
The faults of our representative institutions and colonial-minded
governance cannot really be corrected through the quota mechanism.
Other, more radical, remedies are required involving far-reaching
electoral and administrative reforms. The alternative scheme of
affirmative action offered by Manushi, Loksatta and Lokniti avoids the
pitfalls of the lottery-based rotation system by mandating parties to
give due share of tickets to women within which special provisions
could be made for Muslim and OBC women as well without pushing them
further into the ghetto mindset. In addition, we also propose
electoral reform measures that will make our political parties more
accountable, transparent and democratic in their inner functioning.
However, if all that the pro-reservation lobby wishes for is an
enhancement in the number of women in legislatures, why not require
that women from elite families - upper caste women as well as those
whose husbands, fathers, brothers or close family members are already
MPs and MLAs - will not avail of the quota? It can be reserved for
first-time entrants into politics - women who are contesting on their
own rather than using the political clout their family enjoys. It
would also be sensible to add that a woman will be allowed to avail of
a reserved seat only one time. Thereafter she will contest from a
general seat.
The advocates of the Bill say such a safeguard is not necessary
because the women's reservation Bill is supposed to have a lifespan of
just 15 years. However, we know from past experience that reservations
have a way of extending indefinitely. The Scheduled Caste and
Scheduled Tribe reservations were to last just 10 years. Sixty years
later no political party dare ease out even the ''creamy layer'' among
them, leave alone dismantle reservations altogether. We are likely to
be stuck with this brainless scheme of reservations which functions
like a game of musical chairs. It will further wreck our already
fragile democracy.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies, Delhi.
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