Thousands of students all over India look at their college admission forms with absolute dread every year because they have to apply to those colleges under a term called general category. Millions of debates have been conducted for years and years about whether there truly lies equality in the caste-based reservation. We continuously ask ourselves - who is the real victim here? Who is being unfairly treated? Who has to work harder? And most importantly, the past is the past, but who is truly suffering in the present? Having been a general category student, I’ve always looked down upon the system of caste-based reservation as something wrong. I have always felt that it shouldn’t exist and I must guiltily admit that I was viewing just one side of the coin. We can voice our opinions about unfair treatment in our education system, but we are usually too privileged to understand the intricacies of the deep-rooted hatred towards various castes that still exists in India. Quite a bit of history remains untouched and the side of the coin propagating caste-based discrimination remains unturned. The caste-based reservation was introduced in India in the last century to bring the suppressed community of people at par with the already privileged. Quite a large number of people have had to face the adversities of belonging to the castes considered to be lower in society back then. Initially, it had been an ongoing cycle, where people of certain castes were not given equal social and economic opportunities and thus, they struggled with the upliftment of their standard of living. To break this ongoing cycle and bring certain sets of people at an equal level with everybody else, the caste-based system of reservation was introduced. However, over the years, it has been observed that this system has been exploited by some, thereby rendering the ones with the actual need of it helpless. The topic of abolishing this system has been brought up several times. It has been debated upon heavily, usually giving us the following two sets of arguments - how they have already been brought at par with others over the years and are now given an unfair advantage, and how certain sets of people are still given unequal opportunities based on their caste and haven’t been uplifted yet. We can look into two examples to elaborate on these arguments. Let us first take into consideration a person who belongs to the lower middle class of society, goes to a simple school, and has scored above ninety percent in boards. This person’s neighbor belongs to the upper-middle class, is economically in a greater position, and has scored eighty percent in boards. However, the neighbor gets into the college of their dreams with the help of something called a quota because the person belongs to a scheduled caste. Yes, there are thousands of such cases where people with privileged lifestyles get an unfair advantage over general category students. Let us now take into consideration the person’s maid who has to work very hard to earn a living. Her son has to help his mother in daily household chores, does not have the privileges of a comfortable home, coaching classes, or even an educated parent who can help him with his homework. He has worked very hard to score eighty percent in his boards and desperately needs to go to this dream college to give a boost to his career and alleviate himself from poverty. Now we know that even though the reservation system is misused by some, it cannot be abolished as a whole because the unprivileged still exist and deserve a fair shot at education. A huge population of people living in extremely remote parts of India does not even have the privileges of regular availability of electricity or even a proper internet connection. Some people might be economically stable but are discriminated against by their caste, their children are rendered unemployed due to their lower social status. When compared to the entire population of suppressed castes in India, only a very small number of people can exercise the rights of reservation because not every job is a government job. The private sector, be it employment or education, is not bound to provide these services, and hence, not all lower castes have been alleviated yet. Even though the argument of reservation based on the economic situation is a valid one, we cannot coincide it with caste-based reservation. The whole purpose of introducing this system was not just to remove the aspect of poverty from it, but also to erase the discrimination against them. This works in the way any other kind of discrimination works. Just like homophobia, racism, and sexism, caste discrimination still exists and is widely prevalent in India. There might have been movies and articles about this issue, but the problem hasn’t been done away with yet. Caste-based reservation serves as a way to represent these people and bring them at par with others socially. However, the problem of misuse and misallocation of the quota system cannot be ignored. While there are people who are unaware of even the existence of higher educational institutes, others are coming from extremely privileged backgrounds and taking away a chance to education from somebody who needs it. Keeping the economic aspect in mind, the government’s purpose to socially alleviate the scheduled castes needs a few reforms. If the education system becomes more personalized, and if these people can be reached out to, then maybe, this time, a person will get to study for a year more. If the social stigma attached to scheduled castes can be removed, then maybe this time, a person will be employed for a year more. Lastly, we might have had to deal with a lot of unfairness for belonging to the general category, and we might have been worse off than a lot of people due to the sheer lack of a quota, but we are better off than a lot more because there are people who do not even know what a college looks like. This time, let us look at both sides of the coin.
By Madhumanti Adhikary
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