This post was published on 27th May, 2019 on Women's Web as a Featured Post. Featured Posts are a careful selection of highly relevant and interesting posts picked by editors each day.
This week, a lady doctor who was doing post graduation in gynecology committed
suicide by hanging in her hostel room in the civic run , BYL Nair Hospital, Mumbai.
It is alleged by the victim's parents, that she was harassed over her origins as she belonged to scheduled tribe.The victim had verbally complained to the unit head & the department head about the casteist remarks & harassment & no action was taken. The victims' parents came to Mumbai & case has been filed against three senior doctors ( all ladies ) who allegedly harassed the victim. The case is for abetment of suicide & under sections of the SC/ ST Atrocities act, Anti Ragging act,etal.The victim was not allowed to have meals by her seniors & she was not allowed to meet her mother who was undergoing cancer treatment. The victim was taunted on a
whatsapp group for doctors by her seniors.
This case is a repeat of what happened to
Rohit Vemula , a PhD student at the University of Hyderabad.He committed suicide after facing extreme harassment. There were many protests .An enquiry was launched to determine Rohit Vemula's caste .It was reveled that Rohit belonged to backward class & not dalit. And so, the matter ended there.It makes no difference that a youth commits suicide .Because, what is, of utmost importance is the caste. This is what has remained unchanged, since our society started harping on the caste system through pre independence times.
And that's why the concept of
reservation was introduced through the Indian Constitution .This was done to bring the oppressed communities namely the scheduled castes & tribes to a level that they can be equated to some extent with the non oppressed castes or the higher castes. This is because under
Article 14 which is a
Fundamental Right under the
Indian Constitution states " The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India. "
And reservation is an
affirmative action that is positive action through policies which give the disadvantaged communities easier access to education & employment. This is so because
Article 15 , another
Fundamental Right under the
Indian Constitution states that the State can make special provisions for classes of people who are socially & educationally backward or the scheduled castes & scheduled tribes. And towards this end, the State has reserved some seats in educational institutes & even in government jobs.
And though this affirmative action was thought to be initially sufficient for a short period .Indian society has yet to accept the backward classes as an equal partner .And hence, the State has to continue affirmative action year after year ,through the years . The higher castes feel discriminated by seventy year old reservations ( as the reservations were brought in, after India got independence) . What the higher castes seem to forget is that the scheduled castes & tribes have been oppressed & suppressed for millions of years since the time of
vedas. And the repression continues .
Even today, there are news reports of
honor killings wherein the couple's parents & relatives & sometimes entire villages have ensured that the couples are killed because the boy and girl dared to marry outside their caste .
And in educational institutes, when, the members of disadvantaged classes take admissions, they are treated with scorn & hate. They are made to recall their roots are lower in the social cadre.This affects their confidence levels & many of them are unable to complete their education. This seems to have happened in the case of Rohit Vemula as also in the aforesaid case of the lady doctor who committed suicide by hanging.Similar cases happen at the workplaces wherein members of suppressed classes get jobs.They are ridiculed & treated with contempt by others & mocked repeatedly. All such instances point to our ghetto mentality .We are biased to the core & its going to be a long winding path before our mindsets change.
Our political leaders have wreaked havoc with reservations by introducing them to communities other than scheduled castes & tribes as this is an excellent source to get votes without doing much ! Though the courts have stepped in & sought to limit the reservations for backward classes ( other than scheduled castes & tribes ) by introducing the concept of
creamy layer .
By way of the
124th Constitutional Amendment bill, 2019, the government made a 10 % reservation for economically weaker students among the unreserved category of students. The eligibility condition for 10 % reservation is that annual income must be less than 8 lakhs or those who own less than five cares of land.
Ajit Ranade, eminent Indian economist says that the Government's own data by the National Sample Survey states that almost 99% households will be eligible for 10% reservation. As per an analysis by
Business Today magazine , this 10 % reservation will cover 100% of the Indian population as per income criteria. This is already being challenged in courts for obvious reasons .The concept of " economically challenged " does not exist under the Indian Constitution.Moreover economic status keeps changing unlike social criteria suffered by SC& ST since generations.
Those who say that merit should get precedence have no idea what constitutes
merit. Author & law professor
Marc Galanter states that three types of resources are needed to get that competitive advantage which is called merit. One is economic resources ( education, training, materials etal ), second is social & cultural resources ( social contacts, guidance, advice, etal ) & last intrinsic ability & hard work. And obviously the disadvantaged neither have the economic nor the social and cultural resources to win the competition only based on their hard work.This idea of merit by Marc Galanter was quoted by the SC while it upheld the Karnataka law in May, 2019.
The government's own National Sample Survey Organisation ( NSSO )
data shows that Scheduled castes & Scheduled tribes are highly backward compared to other castes in terms of education.Even in top government posts, SCs & STs corner only 5% of the posts.Another
study has shown that efficiency has not been compromised by reservations for SCs , STs in railways. In fact, diversity has led to increased efficiency.
And that's why, the
Supreme Court in May, 2019 upheld the Karnataka law which has made reservations SCs & STs for promotions of .This is because , Karnataka was able to show data which proved backwardness of SCs & STs .
Lets remember, just as we have to pay off the debts of our forefathers , so also, this reservation is an atonement for the wrongs wrecked on the SC & ST communities for centuries ! As we march onwards , lets make the SC & ST our equal partners. And then , surely, reservations will be on their way out.
