RESERVATION – SHOULD IT BE ABOLISHED?

On this eve of Ambedkar’s Jayanti before celebrating or chanting the praises of Ambedkar, we should introspect if this society is really what Ambedkar wanted? Are we able to follow what Ambedkar architected through the Constitution? There are many claims of delivering Justice but…

He who thinks to end caste-based reservation thinks not to end caste-based discrimination.

He who regards reservation as a privilege does not regard the pain of exclusion.

He who feels that reservation deprives equality feels no deprivation of acceptance.

Most people claim that they do not practice casteism, however, when it comes to marriage, they choose to marry a girl belonging to the same caste. The wedding takes place with Brahmnical rituals even among modern and well-educated men who understand caste discrimination but make their decision contrary to it. Practices such as Brahman Bhoj, which are imbibed with caste discrimination, are never condemned, in the fact they participant in them at every important ritual of death, birth, and marriage. These are the people who are not only educated and well-reputed but also full of compassion and acceptance, yet, they have never shared plates with a person providing them with domestic help.

 

            The end of caste discrimination is ironically self-declared by those who are essentially practicing it. This is evident from the incidents which happened recently in India, where Thakur men gathered in support of crime perpetrators to openly issue threats against Dalit leaders in Hathras and filed legal cases for an attempted visit to the victim’s family. Far from providing justice to the girl, the local administration cremated her body at night. They failed to provide security to her family, however, in the same country Y+ security is provided to an actress over some petty point-scoring politics. While there are gruesome examples of caste discrimination across the country, some people sitting in air-conditioned rooms claim of ending reservation on the grounds of caste and indifferently make an argument of the non-existence of discrimination based on caste in their modern India.

 

            Rohit Vemula who was a PhD scholar was forced to hang himself in Hyderabad Central University: the incident constantly reminds us of the prevalence of caste prejudice among the most educated people of our society. Haresh was another Dalit man who got brutally murdered for marrying an upper-caste woman in Ahmedabad. These incidents shouldn’t be seen in isolation, see the report of the National Human Rights Commission on the prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes, there is a crime against Dalits every 18 minutes. Every day, 3 Dalit Women are raped, 2 Dalits are murdered and two Dalit houses are burnt. The data is too large to summarize here. 

 

            Ambiguous people having no wit and compassion happen to criticize reservation on the basis that it causes injustice but fail to realize it is affirmative action for establishing equality in a true sense founded on the principles of ‘equity'.  So next time before asking for how long the reservation will continue, ask yourself how long will discrimination continue? How many Rohit must die to establish principles of liberty, equality justice, and fraternity? And how many Hathras like incidents need to happen to make you realize the brutality of caste? Ask yourself…

 By: Roopsi Bhagat