Reservation in India

Not to be confused with Indian Reservation.

Caste and community profile of people below the poverty line in India, as outlined in the Sachar Report

Reservation in India is a form of affirmative action designed to improve the well-being of backward and under-represented communities defined primarily by their 'caste' (quota-system based on 'gender' or 'religion'). It's a phenomenon that commenced with the coming into force of the Indian Constitution (the Constitution initially provided reservation to Christians, with the proviso that it would automatically reduce gradually with the efflux of time) – however, lately preferential treatment on regional basis has either been non-statutorily introduced in the educational institutes (e.g. eligibility conditions for candidates from outside the State are 5% higher than that for the 'locals', as per local rules prescribed by certain Universities) or is being advocated in both jobs and lowly professions like auto-rickshaw-drivers.

These are laws (both Constitutional and statutory) or merely local rules/regulations/practices (not derived from any Act passed by the Parliament or State-Legislature) wherein a certain percentage of total available vacancies in educational institutes and government jobs are set aside for people from backward communities and others. Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) are the primary beneficiaries of the reservation policies under the Constitution — with the object of ensuring a level playing field (without defining the benchmark that determines which particular individual player has reached the said 'level'; the Supreme Court's recent concept of 'creamy layer' requires a case-by-case determination as to who has ceased to deserve protection of these Laws).

The reservation system has been a matter of contention ever since it was first introduced in the British occupied India and remains a point of conflict—nay, a form of protectionism [placing a 'handicap' upon certain communities] such as one introduced by the Mughals who levied 'jazia' tax against the Hindu traders.

Many citizens belonging to the perceived upper classes find the reservation policy of the government biased and oppose it, because they feel that it infringes their right to equality. Moreso, not everyone who comes from the underprivileged communities, supports the system the main argument being that it makes one feel disadvantaged. This makes the reservation system a controversial subject matter.

Background of caste based reservation

A common form of discrimination, within humanity, in India is the practice of untouchability. Scheduled Castes (SCs) are the primary targets of this medieval practice—a practice, which is outlawed by the Constitution of India. An untouchable person is considered, "impure or a lesser human." However, during the Vedic period a person's 'Varna' (not 'caste') was defined by his/ her socio-economic duties (broadly classified into four classes or Varnas) – these duties were either voluntarily performed or were assigned by the local administrator etc., and 'varna' was initially not defined by one's birth into any particular family. But later on this changed and throughout centuries, even up to now, one's caste is solely defined by one's birth and not by one's achievements or deeds in his/her life.

The main objective of the Indian reservation system is to increase the opportunities for enhanced social and educational status (in the sense better than the previous—until it becomes equal to that enjoyed by an average member of other communities) of the underprivileged communities and, thus, enable them to take their rightful place in the mainstream of Indian society. The reservation system exists to provide opportunities for the members of the SCs and STs to increase their representation in the State Legislatures, the Executive Organ of the Union (Centre) and States, the labor force, schools, colleges, and other 'public' institutions.

The Constitution of India states in Article 15(4): "All citizens shall have equal opportunities of receiving education. Nothing herein contained shall preclude the State from providing special facilities for educationally backward sections (not "communities") of the population.” [Emphasis and parentheses added.] It also states that “The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of society (in particular, of the scheduled castes and aboriginal tribes), and shall protect them from social ''injustice'' and all forms of exploitation." [Emphasis added.] The Article further states that nothing in Article 15(4) will prevent the nation from helping SCs and STs for their betterment ['betterment' up to the level enjoyed by the average member of other communities].

In 1982, the Constitution specified 15% and 7.5% of vacancies in public sector and government-aided educational institutes as a quota reserved for the SC and ST candidates respectively for a period of five years, after which the quota system would be reviewed. This period was routinely extended by the succeeding governments. The Supreme Court of India ruled that reservations cannot exceed 50% (which it judged would violate equal access guaranteed by the Constitution) and put a cap on reservations.[The basis for laying down a particular percentage would not pass the acid-test of rationality if it were to mean not more than 50% of the 'vacancies' – even if the total number of competing candidates from the 'weaker sections' formed 70% proportion of the total number of competing applicants!] However, there are state laws that exceed this 50% limit and these are under litigation in the Supreme Court. For example, the caste-based reservation stands at 69% and the same is applicable to about 87% of the population in the State of Tamil Nadu. In 1990, Prime Minister V.P. Singh announced that 27% of government positions would be set aside for OBC's in addition to the 22.5% already set aside for the SCs and STs.

Present Caste based reservation system of Union Government

Category as per Government of India	Reservation Percentage for each Category as per Government of India
Other Backward Class (OBC)	27%
Scheduled Castes (SC)	15%
Scheduled Tribes (ST)	7.5%
Physically Disabled (PD)	3%
Total Reservation Percentage	52.5%

Beneficiary Groups of the Reservation System

Enrolment in educational institutions and job placements are reserved based on a variety of criteria. The quota system sets aside a proportion of all possible positions for members of a specific group. Those not belonging to the designated communities can compete only for the remaining positions, while members of the designated communities can compete for all positions (reserved and open). For example, when 1 out of 10 clerical positions in railways are reserved for ex-servicemen, those who have served in the Army can compete both in the General Category as well as in the specific quota.

This is not an anomaly, but a proof that some individual members of a community (a community that has been collectively classified as 'underprivileged') do voluntarily, confidently and honestly demonstrate that he/ she has indeed reached a 'level playing field'.

Seats are reserved for people under the following criteria:-

Caste

In central government funded higher education institutions, 22.5% of available seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students (15% for SCs, 7.5% for STs). This reservation percentage has been raised to 49.5%, by including an additional 27% reservation for OBCs. This ratio is followed even in Parliament and all elections where a few constituencies are earmarked for those from certain communities (which keeps rotating as per the Delimitation Commission).

The exact percentages differ from state to state:

• • In Tamil Nadu, the percentage of reservation is 18% for SCs and 1% for STs, being based on local demographics.
  • In Andhra Pradesh, 25% of educational institutes and government jobs for OBCs, 15% for SCs, 6% for STs and 4% for Muslims.
  • In West Bengal, 35% of educational institutes and 45% of government jobs for SC,ST, and OBC.(25% SC, 12% ST, and 10% Muslim).

Gender

In 1993, a constitutional amendment in India called for a random one third of village council leader, or pradhan, positions in gram panchayat to be reserved for women. The village council is responsible for the provision of village infrastructure – such as public buildings, water, and roads – and for identifying government program beneficiaries. Although all decisions in the village council are made by majority, the pradhan is the only full-time member and exercises significant control over the final council decisions. Recent research on the quota system has revealed that it has changed perceptions of women’s abilities, improved women’s electoral chances, and raised aspirations and educational attainment for adolescent girls.

There is a long-term plan to extend this reservation to parliament and legislative assemblies. For instance, some law schools in India have a 30% reservation for females. Progressive political opinion in India is strongly in favor of providing preferential treatment to women in order to create a level playing field for all of its citizens.

The Women's Reservation Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 9 March 2010 by a majority vote of 186 members in favor and 1 against. It will now be forwarded to the Lok Sabha, and if passed there, would be implemented.

Religion

The Tamil Nadu government has allotted 3.5% of seats each to Muslims and Christians, thereby altering the OBC reservation to 23% from 30% (since it excludes persons belonging to Other Backward Castes who are either Muslims or Christians).

Andhra Pradesh's administration has introduced a law enabling 4% reservations for Muslims. (contested in court) Kerala Public Service Commission has a quota of 12% for Muslims. Religious minority status educational institutes also have 50% reservation for their particular religions. The Central government has listed a number of Muslim communities as backward Muslims, making them eligible for reservation.

Controversy

The Government of India on 22 December 2011 made an announcement of the establishment of a sub-quota of 4.5% for minorities within the existing 27% reservation meant for the Other Backward Classes. The reasoning given is that those Muslim communities that have been granted OBC status are unable to compete with Hindu OBC community. It was alleged that the decision was announced as the Election Commission announced Assembly elections in five states on 24 December 2011. The government would not have been able announce it due to the model code of conduct. On 12 January 2012, Election Commission stayed implementation of this decision for violation of model code of conduct. Later, Justice Sachar who headed Sachar Committee (which was commissioned to prepare a report on the latest social, economic and educational condition of the Muslim community of India.) criticized the government decision saying, "Such promises will not help the backward section of minorities. It is like befooling them. These people are making tall claims just to win elections". He suggested that instead of making promises to give reservation, the government should focus on basic issues of improving administration and governance.

On 28 May 2012, Andhra Pradesh High Court quashed the sub-quota. The court said that the sub-quota has been carved out only on religious lines and not on any other intelligible basis. The court criticised the decision saying, "In fact, we must express our anguish at the rather casual manner in which the entire issue has been taken up by the central government."

Status as a Domicile

With few exceptions, all jobs under certain State governments are reserved for those who are domiciled within the jurisdiction of that government. For example, in Punjab Engineering College (Chandigarh) 85% of seats were earlier reserved for Chandigarh-domiciles—now it is 50%. There are also some seats reserved for the Jammu and Kashmir 'migrants' in every Government-aided educational institute.

Other

Some reservations are also made for:

• Terrorist victims from Kashmir, e.g. in Punjab
• Single Girl-Child (in Punjab)
• Sons/daughters/grandsons/granddaughters of Freedom Fighters
• Physically handicapped
• Sports personalities
• Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) have a small percentage of reserved seats in educational institutions. (Note : NRI reservations were removed from IIT in 2003)
• Candidates sponsored by various organizations
• Those who have served in the armed forces ('ex-serviceman' quota—because the age of superannuation in the Military Service is much shorter than that in the Civil posts; moreso, certain intakes are tenure-based, e.g. the contract for Short-Service Commission is merely 8 years)
• Dependents of armed forces personnel killed-in-action
• Repatriates
• Reservation in special schools of Government Undertakings/ PSUs, for the children of their own employees (e.g. Army schools, PSU schools, etc.)
• Paid pathway reservations in places of worship (e.g., Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, Tiruthani Murugan (Balaji) temple)
• Seat reservation for Senior citizens and Physically handicapped in public (bus) transport.

Government funding allowing reservations in colleges/universities

There is a University Grants Commission (UGC) set up that provides financial assistance to universities for the establishment of Special Cells for SC/STs. Their purpose is to help universities implement the reservation policy in the student admissions and staff recruitment processes at teaching and non teaching levels. They also help the SC/ST categories integrate with the university community and remove the difficulties which they may have experienced. SC/ST cells like these have been set up in 109 universities. The UCG provides financial assistance to universities and affiliated colleges for implementation of the Special Cells. It provides the universities with assistance worth "Rs.1, 00,000/- per annum for:

1. Travelling Allowances & Dearness Allowances for field work
2. Data Collection
3. Analysis and evaluation of statistical data
4. New Computer and Printer (once in a plan period)"

The UGC provides financial assistance only up to the end of the Xth Plan period ending on 31 March 2007. The work undertaken by the SC/ST Cells is reviewed at the end of Xth plan. The Xth plan is proposed to ensure that there is an effective implementation of the reservation policy in admissions, recruitment, allotment of staff quarters, hostels, etc. Essentially, its goal is to ensure that the SC/ST Cells are established in the universities.

Reservation in promotion

Background

The Supreme Court, in its 16 November 1992 judgment in the Indra Sawhney case, ruled that reservations in promotions are unconstitutional, but allowed its continuation for five years as a special case. In 1995, 77th amendment to the Constitution was made to insert clause (4A) to Article 16 before the five-year period expired to continue with reservations for SC/STs in promotions. Clause (4A) was further modified through the 85th amendment in order to give the benefit of consequential seniority to SC/ST candidates promoted by reservation.

The 81st amendment was made to the Constitution that inserted clause (4B) in Article 16 to permit the government to treat the backlog of reserved vacancies as a separate and distinct group, to which the limit of 50 percent ceiling on reservation may not apply. The 82nd amendment inserted a proviso in Article 335 to enable states to give concessions to SC/ST candidates in promotion.

The validity of all the above four amendments i.e. 77th, 81st, 82nd and 85th was challenged in the Supreme Court through various petitions clubbed together in M Nagaraj & Others vs. Union of India & Others, mainly on the ground that these altered the Basic Structure of the Constitution.

On 19 October 2006, the Supreme Court upheld these four amendments but stipulated that the concerned state will have to show, in each case, the existence of compelling reasons which include backwardness, inadequacy of representation and overall administrative efficiency, before making provisions for reservation. The court further held that these provisions are merely enabling provisions. If a state government wishes to make provisions for reservation to SC/STs in promotion, the state has to collect quantifiable data showing backwardness of the class and inadequacy of representation of that class.

2007 Reservation in promotion in Uttar Pradesh

In 2007, Government of Uttar Pradesh introduced reservation in promotions. The policy specified reservation for SC/ST employees in the first stage of their promotion and that of the benefit of consequential seniority in successive promotions. However, this policy was challenged through a spate of petitions and subsequently Allahabad High Court on 4 January 2011 struck down the policy terming it as unconstitutional.

The Allahabad High Court verdict was challenged in the Supreme Court through various petitions namely Civil Appeal No.s 2608 of 2011, 2622 of 2011 and many others. The Supreme Court on 27 April 2012, upheld the high court judgement. The bench consisting of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Dipak Misra rejected the government's argument on the ground that the it failed to furnish sufficient valid data to justify the move to promote employees on caste basis.

The apex court reiterated the law laid down through various judgements by the Constitution benches in the M Nagaraj, Indra Sawhney and other cases wherein it was declared that reservation in promotions can be provided only if there is sufficient data and evidence to justify the need.

Excluded from the reservation system

The following people are not entitled to reserved seats. Meaning that people cannot take advantage of the reservation system if they fall under the following categories:

Categories for Rule of Exclusion	Rule of Exclusion Applies to the following:
Constitutional Posts	The sons and daughters of the President of India, the Vice-President of India, Judges of the Supreme Court, the High Courts Chairman, the members of Union Public Service Commission, members of the State Public Service Commission, Chief Election Commissioner, Comptroller Auditor-General of India or any person holding positions of a constitutional nature.
Service Category: Those who are considered Group ‘A’/Class I officers of the All India Central and State Services (Direct Recruits) or those who are considered Group 'B'/ Class II officers of The Central and State Services (Direct Recruitment) or those who are employees in the Public Sector.	Those who have parent(s) that are Class I or Class II officers, or both parents are Class I or Class II officers but one of them dies or suffers permanent incapacitation. For more visit Pgs 7-8 of [1]. The criteria used for sons and daughters of Group A and B are the same for the employees of the Public sector.
Armed forces including Paramilitary Forces (Persons holding civil posts are not included).	The sons and daughters of parents either or both of whom is or are in the rank of colonel and above in the army or in equivalent posts in the Navy, the Air Force, and the Paramilitary Force. But that will hold true provided that- "the wife of an armed forces officer is herself in the armed forces (i.e., the category under consideration) the rule of exclusion will apply only when she herself has reached the rank of Colonel." "the service ranks below Colonel of husband and wife shall not be clubbed together" "if the wife of an officer in the armed forces is in civil employment, this will not be taken into account for applying the rule of exclusion unless she falls in the service category under item No.II in which case the criteria and conditions"
Professional class and those engaged in Trade and Industry	If a person has a high paying job such as physician, lawyer, chartered accountant, income tax consultant, financial or management consultant, dental surgeon, engineer, architect, computer specialist, film artist or other film professional, author, playwright, sports person, sports professional, media professional or any other vocations of like status. If the husband holds one of the above jobs and the wife doesn't then the husband's income will be taken into consideration and if the wife holds one of the above jobs then the wife's income will be taken into consideration.The income of the family as a whole will be taken into account because the whole point of the reservation system is to raise the social status of the people that belong to the SC's, ST's and OBC's and if a family's income is high already it is considered that it raises their social status as well.
Property owners- Agricultural, Plantations (Coffee,tea,rubber,etc.), Vacant land and/or buildings in urban areas	Sons and daughters of those who have irrigated land area which is equal to or more than 85% of the statutory ceiling area will be excluded from reservation. They would only be under reservation if the land is exclusively unirrigated. Those with vacant buildings can use them for residential, industrial or commercial purposes, hence they are not covered under reservations.
Creamy layer	Son(s)/daughter(s) of those who earn 4.5 lakh Rs. or more annually for three consecutive years are excluded from reservation.

The creamy layer is only applicable in the case of Other Backward Castes and not applicable on other group like SC or ST. Though the efforts are also being made to do so. In some state the reservation within reservation has been made but creamy layer as such is applicable in OBCs only.

Institutions kept out of the purview of reservation

The following institutions have been kept out of the purview of Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006:,

1. Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai and its ten constituent units, namely:
   1. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay
   2. Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam
   3. Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore
   4. Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar
   5. Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata
   6. Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata;
   7. Institute of Physics, Bhubaneshwar
   8. Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
   9. Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad
   10. Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai
2. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai
3. North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, Shillong
4. National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, Gurgaon
5. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore
6. Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad
7. Space Physics Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram
8. Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun

History of the Reservations System

The social reservation in Indian continent is an age-old traditional system sometimes mentioned as equivalent to apartheid. Every person's occupation or job status was fixed by birth.Not only that even who will get education or not, who will live where, who will be allowed to avail social amenities or not was also determined by birth.The British understood their psyche very well and gave it a legal and constitutional acknowledgement.

Present Reservation system has a long history and has been debated before and after Indian Independence from the British in 1947.

Reservations in favor of Backward Classes (BCs) were introduced long before independence in a large area, comprising the Presidency areas and the Princely states south of the Vindhyas. In 1882, Hunter Commission was appointed. Mahatma Jyotirao Phule made a demand of free and compulsory education for everyone along with proportionate representation in government jobs. In 1891, there was a demand for reservation of government jobs with an agitation (in the princely State of Travancore) against the recruitment of non-natives into public service overlooking qualified native people. In 1901,reservations were introduced in Maharashtra (in the Princely State of Kolhapur) by Shahu Maharaj. Chatrapati Sahuji Maharaj, Maharaja of Kolhapur in Maharashtra introduced reservation in favour of non-Brahmin and backward classes as early as 1902. He provided free education to everyone and opened several hostels in Kolhapur to make it easier for everyone to receive the education. He also made sure everyone got suitable employment no matter what social class they belonged. He also appealed for a class-free India and the abolition of untouchability. The notification of 1902 created 50% reservation in services for backward classes/communities in the State of Kolhapur. This is the first official instance (Government Order) providing for reservation for depressed classes in India.

In 1908, reservations were introduced in favour of a number of castes and communities that had little share in the administration by the British. There were many other reforms in favor of and against reservations before the Indian Independence itself.

Even after the Indian Independence there were some major changes in favor of the STs, SCs and OBCs. One of the most important occurred in 1979 when the Mandal Commission was established to assess the situation of the socially and educationally backward classes. The commission did not have exact figures for a sub-caste, known as the Other Backward Class(OBC), and used the 1930 census data, further classifying 1,257 communities as backward, to estimate the OBC population at 52%. In 1980 the commission submitted a report, and recommended changes to the existing quotas, increasing them from 22% to 49.5%.As of 2006 number of castes in Backward class list went up to 2297 which is the increase of 60% from community list prepared by Mandal commission. But it wasn't until the 1990s that the recommendations of the Mandala Commission were implemented in Government Jobs by Vishwanath Pratap Singh.

The concept of untouchability was not practiced uniformly throughout the country; therefore the identification of oppressed classes was difficult to carry out. Allegedly, the practice of segregation and untouchability prevailed more in the southern parts of India as opposed to in Northern India. Furthermore, certain castes or communities, considered "untouchable" in one province were not in other provinces.

Continuous efforts of some of the social reformers of the country like Rettamalai Srinivasa Paraiyar, Ayothidas Pandithar, Jyotiba Phule, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Chhatrapati Shahu ji Maharaj and others, helped in eradicating "casteism".

Advances under the Reservations System

The public sector jobs are divided into 4 categories: Class I (or Group A), Class II (or Group B), Class III (or Group C) and Class IV (or Group D). The Class I employees take up 2.2% of the public sector workforce, the Class II employees take up 3.3% of the public sector workforce, the Class III employees take up 66.8% of the public sector workforce, and the Class IV employees take up 27.2% of the public sector workforce. Below are the percentages of the SC employees in the Central government:

Class	1959	1965	1974	1984	1995
I	1.18	1.64	3.2	6.92	10.12
II	2.38	2.82	4.6	10.36	12.67
III	6.95	8.88	10.3	13.98	16.15
IV	17.24 (excludes sweepers)	17.75	18.6	20.2	21.26 (excludes sweepers)

The above table shows that over time as the new laws for the reservation systems were passed employment of SC's in Class I,II,III, and IV public sectors increased substantially.

Critiques of the Reservations System

Though the concept is reasonable yet its irrational formulation makes the whole principle of ‘reservation’ a serious drain on extremely scarce National resources. For example:

Certain Universities have sub-divided the ‘vacancies’ under each PhD Guide also into ‘open’ and ‘reserved’ categories (the reserved category is again split into, at least, two sub-parts). Hence, in a University with 20 Teachers as ‘approved’ Guides (having a total of 20x8=160 ‘vacancies’) about 50% are earmarked for the candidates from the ‘reserved’ category—incidentally, these reserved seats are not inter-changeable between the sub-categories of the ‘reserved’ category!

Recently (year 2012) it was noticed from the official website of a reputed University that there were only about 10 candidates who had qualified the Written Tests and, hence, all of them were allotted Research Centres and Guides—without appearing for any Interview at all. Hence, there are no competitors, from the reserved categories, for the balance 70 vacancies {(160/2)-10=70}. On the other hand, 150 candidates (from the ‘open’ category) qualified the Written Exams, and 70 of them will have to be rejected admission—because the total number of vacancies in the ‘open’ category is only 80.

Secondly, every Guide is paid the same Pay and Perks even if he/she has no student allotted to him against the 50% ‘reservation’ quota under him.

Thirdly, the students who, under the aforesaid misconceived or irrational implementation of an otherwise reasonable concept, fail to get admission locally, obtain loans from the ‘public’ sector banks in order to pay hefty fees abroad for a PhD programme—whereas within India highly paid National resources (College Teachers who are approved PhD Guides) remain underutilized!

This anomaly can be rectified, to some extent, by pooling the ‘reserved’ vacancies at the level of each Research Centre—rather than under each Guide individually, and reviewing the number of ‘reserved’ seats downwards on the basis of past 5 years’ intake of candidates from the ‘reserved’ category (the tenure of a PhD student normally ends after 5 years).

According to the 2001 census, the SCs represented 16.20 per cent of the population and the STs were 8.10 per cent. Some of the arguments/ counter-arguments put forth by Anti-Reservationists and Pro-Reservationists, are:

Anti-Reservationists	Pro-Reservationists
Lower castes no longer accept that their lower economic status, lower position in the social hierarchy and lack of respect from members of higher castes are a “given” in their social existence.	'Men should remain in the same occupation and station of their life as their forefathers' was a part of religious precepts and social customs long ago, in India.
Opponents are unhappy because they believe that an arbitrary socio-economic injustice is being committed against them and in favour of those who have already reached (or even gone beyond) a 'level' playing field, and equality of opportunity is being eroded from the point such 'level' ground was reached by individual members of a community that is only collectively labelled as 'underprivileged'. They are against the reservations because not only appointments are made on the basis of membership in a caste, but further promotions are also made on the basis of mere membership of a community – not considering the fact that the individual is, upon being appointed to the aforesaid 'public' post, no longer "socially or economically handicapped". They also believe that reservations are used for political benefits (caste-based politics) rather than social benefits.	The OBCs, on the other hand, argue that they should get a greater share in administrative positions because political power resides in India’s administrative positions. They view political power as a way to get economic benefits, of which they have been deprived. [We need a thorough, funded research on the quantum of change in the economic condition of 'dalits' during the 5-year tenure of a dalit leader in Uttar Pradesh, in order to find out whether the above argument is supported by facts.]
They believe that reservations do not take into account merits and achievements; and those who do not deserve, hold certain positions or get those positions because of reservations—this could lead to deterioration in the efficiency of public services.	The 'pro-reservationists' believe that they should get reservations because they had been victims of the Brahmin-dominated caste system, and look up to reservations as a part of the struggle against this oppression—towards changing India’s social structure.
"India will remain trapped in the caste paradigm." The Reservation Policy is helping less, while harming more.	Supporters of quotas have argued that reservations have been successful in Southern states, where they have been used extensively. [The percentage of reservation under each category is being constantly reviewed in these States (supra).]

See also

• Court Cases Relating to India's Reservation System
• Women's Reservation Bill India
• Dhangar Scheduled tribe issue
• Nationalization
• Socialism
• Caste politics in India
• Reservation policy in Tamil Nadu
• Self-immolations in India

External links

• "Raising Female Leaders" J-PAL Policy Briefcase, April 2012
• PhD Admissions - Artificial and Arbitrary Shortages of Vacancies Created by, inter alia, Irrational Implementation of Reservation Principle
• Central List of Other Backward Classes
• Why reservation for OBCs is a must. By V. B. Rawat
• The Myth of Inefficiency. By Sheetal Sharma
• Radical Notes - Common School System and the Future of India. Anil Sadgopal. (28 February 2008)(On Right to Education)
• Radical Notes - Beyond the Judiciary - Reservation as Reparation. Saswat Pattanayak (19 April 2007)
• Critics slam India's education quotas - BBC Article on Reverse Discrimination in the Indian Reservation System
• Anti Reservation official website, AntiReservation.Com
• Supreme Court Upholds 27% OBC Quota
• Reservations: Towards a larger perspective
• Anti Reservation Protest
• Computing Backward Index
• Reservation as viewed by Indian industry
• Southern record - Frontline
• Government Jobs and Reservations in India
• Reservation policy forum article
• Examining reservation
• Reservation must for a healthy society
• Multiple Index Related Affirmative Action (An Alternative Proposal)
• Reservation as viewed by a backward class proponent
• Questioning Reservation
• Reservations as viewed by one OBC faculty member
• An Alternative Suggestion
• Reservations have worked in Southern States
• UP introduces voluntary reservation in private sector
• Rangnath Commission recommends 10% quota for Muslims
• Reservation will not help Muslims, will only open Pandora's box
• Govt Jobs
• Bull's Eye
• Latest Govt Jobs
• Reservations in Indian Government Jobs at JobsIndiaOnline.info