http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/The-Wrong-Approach/articleshow/6252790.cms
COMMENT
The Wrong Approach
Aug 4, 2010, 12.00am IST
There have been rumblings about job reservations in the private sector
for disadvantaged sections of society such as scheduled castes and
scheduled tribes before, but mercifully they have never been realised.
Now, the government seems inclined to try again with the Department of
Industrial Policy and Promotion mooting mandatory 5 per cent SC/ST
reservation in private sector companies. But in doing so, it has
caught the wrong end of the stick. Caste reservations are a remarkably
blunt instrument for securing social justice, and it's a failure of
imagination to think of them as the only possible means of affirmative
action. Reservations have not been self-limiting as they ought to have
been if they were truly successful; instead, there has been consistent
political pressure to push them into new domains.
Certainly, socio-economically disadvantaged sections of society must
be made stakeholders in what has, to a significant extent, been the
engine of India's economic growth. But that can't be done through
purely mechanical means, setting aside the principle of merit which
makes private sector companies competitive. Affirmative action in a
broader sense implies creating an enabling environment by imparting
vocational training, leveraging Corporate Social Responsibility
initiatives to fund educational programmes and encouraging hiring
policies that don't discriminate against certain groups, all other
things being equal. In any case a survey carried out by the CII in
southern states showed SC/STs to be well-represented in the private
sector, making up 16.2 per cent of the workforce. Caste reservations
have gone far enough in the Indian polity, it's now time to think of
other forms of affirmative action as well as of implementing policies
that lift all boats, such as better infrastructure and universal
education.
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