Does India need reservations?
Absolutely. Caste based reservations are given to protect backward castes from caste based discrimination. This is rampant in Indian society.
The upper-castes who dominate the government bureaucracy redirect development resources to their localities denying the backward castes of the necessary support to development. These include - schools, health centers, water, roads, public transport.
You can see how locating the schools in a upper-caste locality makes dalit children miss schools and be irregular.
Also in terms of services - doctors don't come, teachers don't come, rations are not given, there are no roads, no power, teachers make kids sit in the back, mid-day-meals are not provided, they are punished in schools. Most of the 200-300M dalits suffer from this discrimination in their daily life.
They can get 'reservations' in colleges only if they survive the discrimination in schools.
The upper-castes don't suffer any such discrimination, they enjoy the benefits of the government schemes without discrimination and are able to move forward in life. The discriminated castes lag behind - increasing the gap between the castes.
Reservations are meant to protect the opportunities of dalits and backward castes who come from such discrimination.
Today, not many come of out this oppression. Many reservation seats go vacant or their cut-off become low because the primary schooling is controlled by the upper-castes (60%) even though they are just 31% of the population. They use this to discriminate these kids early in life, stunting their interest in education. This was part of a human rights watch group report listed below as well.
Reference - India: Marginalized Children Denied Education
Discrimination in urban centers
The same discrimination takes are different shape in urban centers. This was also a part of research studies. Let's see them one-by-one.
Discrimination in employment
According to this research paper 33% of dalits are rejected in resume screening by caste names in Indian private sector. This was interesting study done by sending identical resumes to job portals and measuring the response rates. This study established a clear pattern where dalits were discriminated in process of resume screening. What this essentially means is that - 1 in 3 is a casteist. Now imagine 3-5 level interview process, there is a 1/3 chance of meeting a casteist. This increases the chances of a dalit being rejected rapidly to 85%.
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| Figure: Need for reservations in private sector, evidence of discrimination |
Reference - Urban Labor Market Discrimination
Housing discrimination
This is another study done in the National Capital Region - Delhi. In this study, a team responded to house listings in the NCR region with dalit sounding names and upper-caste sounding name. The results were astounding. 44% of people won't provide housing in the nation's capital to dalits in an urban metropolis.
Any parent will tell you that access to good schools is key to any child's future. By simply denying housing the upper-castes deny access to schooling to the dalit children...
Reference - Study shows NCR homeowners turn away Dalits and Muslims
Untouchability and caste marriages
This is a well know statistics of how many Indians practice untouchability.
- 27% of Indians practice untouchability
- 95% of Indian marriages are caste marriages.
Reference - Just 5% of Indian marriages are inter-caste: survey
Private schools enrollment
This is the enrollment statistics of DPS in Delhi.
The population of India has 69% SC/ST/OBC. The enrollment data for SC/ST/OBC in Delhi Public School is less than 5%. This numbers indicate that the nation's capital has discrimination based on caste.
Since there is discrimination by caste in India even after 68 years of independence, we need to provide protection to backward castes and dalits.
Please note that even after reservations, the upper-castes dominate the government jobs and other opportunities.
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| Figure: Reservation In India - Status |
We will need reservations since the blue line representing the current distribution is way above the black line.
-edit- from other answers on the same topic
Originally Answered: Does India still need caste based reservation?
Caste based reservations are protection against caste based discrimination in society. They are required as long as there is caste based discrimination in India.
Is there caste based discrimination in India?
Absolutely.Read this report on
- Hidden Apartheid - A Report from the Human Rights Group
- India Untouched: Darker Side of India - Video on untouchability in India
Now, don't argue that there is no discrimination in the urban areas or witnessed one in the 17 years of your life. You didn't see it does not mean it does not happen.
Read on
So as long as there is discrimination in society, we need reservations.
You can see that in this documentary about rural India.
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