The issue of reservation usually evokes emotive response among its votaries and critiques of the policy. Some even suggest ‘scrapping of the entire reservations policy’ as the only solution to the existing national problems. Shockingly, when the Courts recently gave two significant judgements regarding the implementation of reservation policy, there is no deliberation at the national level.
While terminating the 21 years old service of a Principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya with immediate effect, the Supreme Court in January 2018 remarked that “there cannot be any dispute that the caste is determined by birth and the caste cannot be changed by marriage with a person of Scheduled Caste.” And, therefore, the court ruled that merely because married to a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste category, a lady cannot avail the benefits of reservation. This would certainly have greater ramifications for women who have already availed such benefits.
In another case, implementing the Supreme Court verdict of July 2017, Maharashtra Government found that 11,700 employees gained jobs by means of fake certificates over the forty years period. The Apex Court ruled that anyone found guilty of using a forged caste certificate to secure a job or admission into an educational institution would lose his/her job or degree and would also face punitive action. Similar kind of cases pertaining to ST certificates surfaced in Odisha as well.
In reply to a question in Lok Sabha in 2015, the then Minister of State for Social Justice had replied: “As per information received from various Ministries/Departments etc. 1832 appointments were allegedly secured on the basis of fake/false caste certificates. Disciplinary proceedings had been instituted in all the cases.”
These cases clearly indicate that the benefits of reservation are not percolating down to the desired target groups. The result is 40 per cent faculty positions in Central Universities are vacant. According to the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, only about 4 per cent each of the rural Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste households have a member in a government job. Not that there is a dearth of quality or competence, as merit lists for admissions suggest, but the benefits are not reaching to the deserving. And one of the reasons is that somebody is capturing those reserved seats by fraudulent means. Most of these frauds have come out recently, which shows earlier governments and ruling parties, who claimed to be champions of SC/ST cause, allowed forgery to continue.
There is an urgent need to take the benefits of reservation to the needy and deserving candidates, genuinely from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. For that a non-political mechanism needs to be evolved where SCs and STs would not be considered as mere vote-banks. A full-proof mechanism of issuing and verifying SC/ST certificates needs to be evolved and the vacancies of reserved posts should be filled on a target basis.
The policy of reservation envisaged by our Constitution makers, especially by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, was to ensure ‘social democracy’. Liberty and equality along with fraternity are the cardinal principal in this democratic process. Not just the Government institutions and mechanisms but also leadership at the societal level, including that of dominant SC or ST communities, has a responsibility of taking reservations to the unreached. Then only reservation would turn into a tool of equitable distribution and social integration and not be treated as a menace.
