Why Reservations?

The right to education is a fundamental as well as a human right, and every person has this right from the time they are born. It is a widely accepted notion that every person must have this right. You can understand this from a common statement that I hope most people will agree with: "No matter how much of a genius you are, no matter how educated or meritorious you are, you do not have the right to stop anyone else from getting educated, or in other words, you cannot snatch anyone else's right to get an education."

Since India has different communities based on caste, and for simplification, these are broadly categorized into SC/ST, OBC, and GENERAL categories. Each of these categories has a historical reason behind its formation, and each of these communities must have equal opportunity to access education. To ensure equal opportunity to access education, each community must be provided reservations in proportion to its population in the country so that each community has equal rights to education. Allowing general category students to have access to more than 30% of the seats is to allow them to snatch away the right to education from the Bahujan of this country. Without reservations, caste-based discrimination does not allow equal opportunity to access education.

Caste-based segregation is followed in rural as well as urban areas, and even when a person from a lower caste is from a well-to-do family, he or she still has to face caste-based mocking, segregation, and bullying, especially in coaching centers and urban societies. Thus, the basis of discrimination is not income but caste, and due to casteism, certain communities do not have equal access to resources to crack entrance examinations. Even if they have resources, they do not have a proper environment to compete as compared to upper-caste students.

Objection (1): The state has a limited amount of resources; therefore, it must be distributed based on merit, not based on rights, as it would hamper the efficiency of the institution.

Refutation: A limited amount of resources does not become a reason for the infringement of fundamental rights. We have enough seats for undergraduate programs in medical, engineering, law, etc., colleges; thus, until the undergraduate level, we can provide proportional reservations. The problem arises at the postgraduate level programs in medical, engineering, and law colleges; therefore, these can cater for adequate reservations, which means a reservation of a minority of seats such as 50%, not proportional. Also, the question is then on the government to increase the number of seats in the institution rather than snatching away the fundamental rights of people. To say that in a limited amount of resources, one has the right to not allow others to get educated is absurd.

Objection (2): Why is reservation based on caste and not on income if the main problem is access to resources? Why should well-to-do students from SC/ST/OBC have reservations?

Refutation: Reservations were to ensure representation of each community in government institutions, and the main problem that comes in between is the problem of caste. Due to casteism, a large section of society—SC/ST/OBC (70% of the Indian population)—was restricted from education and is more prone to poverty. As a result, SC/ST/OBC students have lesser access to resources as compared to general category students. But this is not just about income; it is about community support as well. Upper-caste students live mostly in urban areas. They are more accepted into societies, while even well-to-do SC/ST/OBC students face segregation and caste-based mockery in coaching institutes and urban societies, due to which they do not have equal opportunities in education as compared to upper-caste students.

P1) The person belonging to the lower caste will have more chances to face discrimination, while the person belonging to the upper caste will have more chances of easily finding accommodation in any urban city. Therefore, the person from the upper caste has more opportunities to freely accommodate into any part of the country.

P2) The person from a lower caste, even if accommodated into society, will have to face caste slurs and caste biases because of heavily upper-caste-dominated societies in urban India, due to which the environment is toxic for him. He is more at risk of being bullied in the name of caste as compared to the upper-caste guy, who does not have to worry about all of this.

P3) P1 and P2 help us to determine the third premise: In case of joblessness or some tragedy, the upper-caste guy has more mobility to shift into any occupation, while the lower-caste guys do not have this mobility because not all regions of this country equally accept people from a lower caste. Therefore, the upper-caste guy has more access to occupational opportunities.

Let us take an example: There are two people, one from the general category and another from the SC/ST category; both are of the same income group. Let's say their annual income is above 8 lakhs.

P4) The students belonging to lower-caste backgrounds have to face toxic people and teachers in coaching institutes, and even if they complain about it, no action is taken, and there is no one to validate their feelings. So, the person from the upper caste can easily have jokes and puns with his friends and can go to any teacher for doubt-solving, while this option won't be available to lower-caste guys, as how can he approach a teacher who is casteist himself? Therefore, the upper-caste student has more access to educational and environmental resources of academics. P5) Even if a person is not yet discriminated against, it does not mean that his risk of discrimination becomes zero. So, let's say that we don't give reservations to these well-to-do people from SC/ST communities, and the very next moment they migrate to an area where casteism is high—what about it then? They become victims of discrimination. So, to ask that each member faces discrimination is dumb because each member has more risk of falling into poverty, each member is more at risk of discrimination, each member is more prone to segregation, and each member is prone to face difficulty in occupational change as compared to an upper-caste member of the same income level.

P5) Even if a person is not yet discriminated against, it does not mean that his risk of discrimination becomes zero. So, let's say that we don't give reservations to these well-to-do people from SC/ST communities, and the very next moment they migrate to an area where casteism is high—what about it then? They become victims of discrimination. So, to ask that each member faces discrimination is dumb because each member has more risk of falling into poverty, each member is more at risk of discrimination, each member is more prone to segregation, and each member is prone to face difficulty in occupational change as compared to an upper-caste member of the same income level.

Objection (3): Even though casteism still happens with well-to-do SC/ST/OBCs, they have enough wealth to tackle the discrimination; therefore, they should not be given reservations.

Refutation: If someone can tackle discrimination, does that mean the person has equal opportunity as compared to a person from a general category? The answer is no, as addressed above: Due to discrimination, the principle of equal opportunity is broken. Therefore, even if a well-to-do person from a lower caste can fight discrimination, he still does not have equal opportunity as compared to a person from an upper caste, as Bahujan students, apart from education, have to focus on fighting discrimination as well. Therefore, even well-to-do SC/ST/OBC should have reservations, although only OBC-NCL have access to reservations because creamy-layer OBCs are not entitled to reservations. The income criterion is the same as that of EWS.

Objection (4): With the current reservation system (adequate reservation), the unreserved category is not completely for general category students, as even the SC/ST/OBC students with general merit can compete; therefore, the general category students have access to a lesser amount of seats.

Refutation:

1. This is completely false information. Even though SC/ST/OBC students can take part in unreserved categories, in a practical sense, they do not do so in large numbers. This is backed by direct evidence from NEET and JEE examinations and the data from 2020 to 2023. We see that in the JEE Advanced examination, general category students along with EWS were allotted 49% of total seats (2023), while in NEET (2021 and 2023), general category students along with EWS were allocated 42% of total seats.

2. There is a reason why this happens: SC/ST students mostly and always apply in their own category, even if they have general merit, as it helps them land in better colleges and better opportunities. OBC-NCL has only 27% reservations, which is way less as compared to their population in the country (43%); still, even OBCs compete very less in unreserved seats—only 8% in NEET (2021 and 2022) and 3-4% in JEE.

3. Some might say that even in the unreserved category, the general category student has to fight on merit, but the question is: Whom do they have to compete with in the unreserved category? Most general category students have to face competition from other general category students only in the unreserved category. Therefore, practically, the unreserved category acts as a reservation for general category students since they have to mostly compete within themselves, not with SC/ST/OBC students.

4. So, imagine if general category students had 30% reservations (as per their population); they would not have access to more than 30% of seats. In the current reservation system, they have access to more seats as compared to their share in population.

5. So, reservations do not harm or discriminate against general category students. To say that they are discriminated against, they need to show that in an examination, they ever had access to only less than 30% of seats.

6. As stated above, marks do not become the criterion for selection; they are the criterion for selection within what is under your rights, as merit is a means to distribute rights. Therefore, the distribution of seats must be as per population; then, among those seats, the students should be chosen as per merit.

Does Reservation Harm General Category Students?

Reservation is a policy for the representation of socially backward classes in India. It is done to provide equality of opportunity among different castes in India. Since caste and varna exist in India as a concept, and both are discriminatory even as per the scriptures and as per history as well, it becomes necessary for the upliftment of socially backward castes to be given representation in the field where it is due.

Rights vs. Merit Rights >>>> Merit (see above threads). Merit can only be calculated within the domain of rights since the right to education is a fundamental right; therefore, it must be given to all regardless of their relative merit. Just like the right to live and the right to health are necessary human rights, so is the case for education. Now, for providing equal opportunity for education to everyone, every caste must be given opportunity in proportion to their share in the population. OBC, SC, and ST form 85% of the population according to the last census which recorded caste (1931) and which formed the basis of the Mandal Commission report. So, the population of the upper castes is roughly 15%. This varies from state to state. In Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, it is less than 6%. In Bihar, it is 15%. And also, in certain states, Pasmanda Muslims, Christians, and converted Dalits are counted as OBCs since they are also socially and educationally backward like the OBC caste Hindus. So, in any case, the upper-caste population is not more than 15%.

Now, as per the roster system, it ensures that the SC/ST/OBC seats are so. OBCs, even if they tried to compete in unreserved categories, at maximum can take only 15-18% of seats. This is also illustrated in the NEET 2020, 2021 allotment data, where most of the OBCs only competed in their category; only 8% SC/ST/OBCs competed in the unreserved category. OBCs (44%), since 27% is reserved for them, the maximum they can compete in unreserved is only 14%. Therefore, the 36% of unreserved seats is practically reserved for the general category. As per representation, each category should get reservations as per their share of the population.

Objection (5): But I have not done discrimination, nor has my family done any; then what benefit did I get?

Refutation: Even if you don’t do discrimination, due to historical and societal discrimination that has existed in India, you get the benefit of it. Let me explain this through an example: In North India, early marriage of women is very common, and they are mostly not allowed to go to colleges in other states or far away from their town. They are not given much social exposure as compared to boys. So, even though you have not done any discrimination towards them, due to the discrimination society does towards them, they are unable to participate much in a competition as they would have if the discrimination did not exist. As a result, the competition became easier for you, be it job, college, housing, etc. The same goes for caste: Since most people from marginalized communities have lower primary education, that is because of the lower education of their parents, which is because of casteism. So, you get the benefit out of it. All the facts spoken here are supported by peer-reviewed datasets.

Objection (6): If you take reservation based on caste, then you will face discrimination based on caste.

Refutation: If marks are the basis for discrimination, then why are EWS category students not discriminated against when EWS and OBC-NCL have the same income criterion, and the cutoff of OBC and EWS category is the same in almost every examination? Also, the people who support income-based reservations—why do they discriminate and use caste slurs against poor SC/ST? Also, if they consider EWS to be economically weaker, then why do they discriminate against OBCs since OBC-NCL are also given reservations (income below 8 lakhs)?

You have taken the benefit of caste at every point of your life. You are born with your upper-caste tag; you own ancestral wealth that your ancestors accumulated because of casteism (most of ancestral wealth is because of land holding, and for a long time, SC/ST/OBC during British and Peshwa regime did not have access to land capital, due to which upper castes had monopoly over it). Not only that, you are born with adequate access to resources such as education, healthcare, and access to proper society. There are only 5% poor upper-caste Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh; compare it to Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, whose 50% population is poor in Uttar Pradesh. If you look at the national average, almost 56% of people from upper castes qualify as extremely rich or upper middle class, while 70% of Dalits qualify as extremely poor or lower middle class (NFHS data).

Now, even if an upper caste is from a poor household, his community is still rich (upper castes, which are 15% in population, own 45% of India's wealth). Due to which, there is someone in your family to help you with education and healthcare, and this is the reason upper castes, even when they are poor, have higher chances of coming out of poverty as compared to poor Dalits.

Because of your caste, you have easy access to housing in urban society where you are not discriminated against; rather, the house owners and landlords have sympathy towards upper castes (as per ICSSR data, 50% of Dalits were rejected while 99% of upper castes were accepted in Delhi-NCR for home seeking, despite the fact that both Dalits and upper castes had the same income and same job type).

So, if you can discriminate on the basis of caste because of reservations, then as per this logic, should lower-caste people also make fun of your gods, make fun of your stupid scriptures and their dumb reasoning and casteist laws? Even when someone makes fun of your single god, your whole community starts to cope, and suddenly you become victims? Where is the logic now?

Leave your caste first, return the ancestral wealth that you inherited from forefathers who looted it away from Shudras, leave your caste privileges such as education and healthcare, and then cry about reservations.

[REPOSTED THIS AS MEGATHREAD BECAUSE PREVIOUS OP'S POST GOT REMOVED]

Your take?