The Great Indian Reservation System

It's been in the news since last few days that people from a particular cast are demanding reservation for them. They want to transfer their status from General cast to OBC. In normal cases people get happy when they are promoted, but it’s the opposite here. People want to degrade. Actually this is how the concept of the reservation was introduced to me when I was a kid. My cast was promoted to OBC from SC/ST back then, and people were protesting that No, we are still not that developed and we should remain in the category of SC/ST. I asked my father why they were doing that, because we should feel proud and happy that we have worked hard and now we can say that we are developed. Then I got the knowledge of reservation system.

Now, the issue is very sensitive and complex. These people are claiming that they want to have the status of OBC, not because they are not developed, but they want to benefit from the reservation system. For me, this is wrong. I have partially supported the system, it was actually introduced to develop the nation, but with time it has been an obstacle in the development. The problem with such movements is that they are not in the direction of making the system correct or to improve the flaws, but they are in the way that how they can benefit from the flaws of the system. In addition to that if you want to have the OBC status, be ready to have the same social status like the other casts have in that section. In India rather than considering the cast backwards and that is in the sense that these group of people should develop, they should develop in the matter of opportunities. Rather than that we consider their beings backwards. Like they are not people and they have committed a crime by being born in some house. You don’t have to choice to select the house or cast in which you want to born. It’s the deeds of someone that makes them who they are, not their cast or the house they belong. People will need drastic change in their mentality to accept these facts, and I don’t see it happening any time soon.  What this system has done is that they have increased the social status gap between these casts. First of all I don’t believe in such cast system, but let’s leave that for some other day. In the name of culture and history we are still stubborn on some previous customs and rituals. Even in this era if you believe that someone is bad, because they are from some cast, then you have failed as a human.

Rather than changing the system, we want to benefit from it selfishly. No, reservation is not needed. If you want to really help the population, judge them on talent and help them nurture it. If a kid is talented enough to go to a good college and he doesn’t have the money to fund the fees, you can help him there. But he shouldn’t have the extra privilege that he can score low and still get ahead of the queue which has more potential than him, just because he was born in some cast. That’s wrong at the fundamental level. And if the government say that those special people don’t have all the facilities compared to the other people, it’s government’s fault. It is government’s duty to make sure that everyone in the country gets the same amount of opportunities as everyone. You can’t get away with giving privileges to some people in the name of development and reservation.

I agree that the system is wrong. Yes, it needs to change. And if you want to make it perfect, you have to change it, not to be part of that system. I hope one day both the major parties of India will put the vote bank politics aside and join hands to develop the country in real sense (I don’t see that happening for years to come though). On a rational level this movement is based on a selfish motto, may be many are deprived of the opportunities they deserve, but rather than making things right, you just want to take benefit of the faulty system. Then my friend, you are doing it wrong.