Sub-Quota Reservations: Is there a Need?

Whenever you may have rushed to check the competitive entrance results to a university or for a Government job, you would have noticed that the names or roll numbers of the successful candidates are finely divided into categories of ‘General’, ‘SC/ST (Scheduled Castes/Tribes) and ‘OBC’ (Other Backward Castes). This is the transparency or reflection of the divide in our democracy that by constitution provides equal opportunity to all regardless of caste, religion, gender, disability etc. and is committed towards the upliftment of marginalized sections of the society to a mainstream level of access, privilege and competition. When you are demarcating an individual’s merit as per the demographic category he or she is born into, when can you expect uniformity and equality to ever permeate across diverse sections is the question we’ve been begging to answer.

The recent introduction of a 4.5% reservation for religious minorities under the 27% OBC (Other Backward Classes) quota by the Congress has largely been reacted to as a blatant political move to appease the Muslim minorities in Uttar Pradesh. True that communal and caste based, or in other words ‘vote bank’, politics has always been the preferred mode for our political parties since time memorial. But before we can blame them for ‘inciting’ us, lets also agree to the fact that it has always worked in their favour through the eras and our “favourable” response is much responsible for it.

However, beyond the politics, are quotas the closest answer to address the grievances of certain religious minorities in the OBC category or even in the historically rooted mainstream section of the society and bridging the gap in a diverse society such as ours?

Needless to mention, the sub-quota reservation has been introduced especially in the interests to uplift the Muslim minority of India that has existed in the most deplorable conditions as compared to other socio-religious groups whether in the marginalized or the mainstream sections. Before we jump the gun to assume (lest accuse) this to be a highly threatening communal move, lets examine some research highlights brought out by the Sachar Committee in its 2006 report.

Twenty five per cent of Muslim children in the 6-14 year age group have either never attended school or have dropped out. 

In premier colleges only one out of 25 under-graduate students and one out of 50 post-graduate students is a Muslim. Unemployment rate among Muslim graduates is the highest among all socio-religious communities. Only 3% of Muslim children among the school going age go to Madarsas. 

The presence of Muslims has been found to be only 3% in the IAS, 1.8% in the IFS and 4% in the IPS. The share of Muslims in employment in various departments is abysmally low at all levels. Muslim community has a representation of only 4.5% in Indian Railways while 98.7% of them are positioned at lower levels. Representation of Muslims is very low in the Universities and in Banks. In no state does the representation of Muslims in the government departments match their population share. Their share in police constables is only 6%, in health 4.4%, in transport 6.5%.

The work participation rate (WPR) shows the presence of a sharp difference between Hindu-OBCs (67%) and the Muslims. The share of Muslim-OBCs in government/ PSU jobs is much lower than Hindu-OBCs. Out of every hundred workers about eleven are Hindu-OBCs, only three are Muslim-Gen and one is a Muslim-OBC.

In such a scenario, it is justifiable for a sub-quota to exist, which can aid a sizable proportion of the Indian population. However, the quantification of the sub-quota to whatever proportion in the OBC category can never be constitutionally availed only by a specific religious group and hence, will be grabbed by more privileged religious minorities. Moreover, the Sachar report also states that although relatively more non-Muslim minorities have benefitted out of the Reserve Bank of India’s effort to extend banking and credit facilities, the Muslims have been marginalized. Such an issue can hardly be addressed via post reservations that other minorities and mainstream categories suffer the repercussions of in terms of lesser opportunities and resources.

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The Equal Opportunities Commission, which has efficiently (although not flawlessly) worked in democracies like in the United States of America, which was one of the high recommendations of the Sachar Committee, appears to be the debatable “middle ground” solution in the highly complex, sensitive and grey matter like reservation. Such a commission is meant to look into the grievances of deprived and discriminated groups on a case-to-case basis as much as at the level of general analysis. However, the very enactment of this bill is at present yet to be tabled in the parliament due to differences between ministries in its mandate and location. Hence, how effectively it functions to address the issues of many minorities and sub-minorities as opposed to the National Minority Commission, is still left much to hope.

If our understanding of a democracy is based on equal opportunities than we must understand that economic factors aside, the hierarchical culture of a caste based system as well as the ‘divide & rule’ policy that we emerge from and continue to exist in is responsible for the varied socio economical realities of the diverse people of this country. Reservations are not purely borne out of the need to uplift economically deprived, hence, socially underprivileged communities. This reality is not unidirectional and in complex ways, goes around in a vicious circle of clockwise and anti-clockwise movement.

The Mandal judgment of 1992 stated that creamy layer should be excluded from "the protected group earmarked for reservation." While the preference and importance should be towards socio-economically deprived groups, the relatively “privileged” minorities cannot be immediately wiped out of this category on the sole basis of a given family’s annual income.  Yes, the effort should be towards gradually uplifting communities out of reserved categories (meeting and surpassing realistic ‘mainstream’ benchmarks) only to make these posts vacant for under acknowledged communities (many tribal groups) that have yet to benefit from Government measures or remain starkly underrepresented in the public or private sector. 

It cannot be either/or quotas versus a minorities commission as both agencies in its own right and exclusivity are imperfect functionaries, hence, need to work in cohesive tandem to strive towards a more democratic society of equal rights and opportunities.