Reservations.

In ‘Target’ as I was browsing through for sunblocks with stronger spf, i came across lotions and creams and shampoos marked ‘made by African Americans,’ ‘handmade by Native Americans’ and ‘made by Mexicans’ that surprised me. Not really, because I recalled having seen this on earlier occasions. I am back after an year and the town is different. The hypermarket was midsize. There were aisles promoting beauty/makeover brands/cosmetics made by the minorities that was impressive. Every society seems to be doing its bit to help whoever needs a helping hand. Reservation quotas exist in every corner of the globe where inequalities exist. The injustices demand that they be redressed so that we can have a just an equitable society where everyone can prosper. To compete on equal footing as a mature society therefore becomes the basic criteria. The blue collar workers of America are not doing the janitor’s job or waiting at the tables at restaurant or plumbing or driving trucks owing to their birth/caste credentials. Rules are simple: if you don’t do well in school, expect to clear tables and bill at KFC or Tacobell. Unless otherwise you have trust funds to take care of you, that is. Nobody mows the grass in cemetary because his father and grandfather used to do that. Immigrants who are semiskilled may have to start from the bottom of the ladder. Otherwise, there is standardization to a great degree when it comes to education. Fairly competitive out here in America. India is hardly anywhere close to imparting that kind of equality and social justice to all sections of her populace. The sanitation workers, the graveyard staff, the chakkilis (footwear repairmen) and even the housemaids in India are what they are only BY VIRTUE OF THEIR BIRTH or what we call the caste prejudice, as ‘nobler occupations’ were systematically denied to them for millennia. Almost hundred percent, the blue collar workers in India are doing their ancestors’ job. Formal education was denied to them until the turn of the century. The most backward and the scheduled lists had to fight a legal battle to win their entry to schools and universities in British India. The discrimination practised for thousands of years put them at disadvantage for centuries. The reservation earmarked for them is not concession but compensation. Furthermore, those from the fringes of Indian society and the ones at the lowest rungs of our economic ladder are not enrolling their children in posh or creamy schools. What is open for them are the corporation or municipal schools where the medium of instruction could be local language. How do you even pit these poorest and weakest sections among us with the IIT and IIM savvy elitist groups. Reservation is a means to hasten the pace of progress by way of encouragement so that nobody is left out. The aim of reservation is INCLUSIVE GROWTH that sometimes may leave collateral damage in its wake. There is no other way out. When the center gave in to reservation demands of the forward communities, it committed a grave error of injustice. The affluent and the literate population of India have been making strides without the aid of reservation. However, hopefully one no more has to hear the whining against quotas that has been sounding since the day of India’s independence. I have personally witnessed how the first generation literate quota, the job reservation quota etc., have benefited the most vulnerable among us. Reservation is the greatest incentive that incites the rural poor to risk education with the promise of a future prosperity. When the fruits of a democracy percolate down to grass roots, the faith in the institutions of the nation gets reinforced. A possible civil war at a later date could be averted. Battles are fought over resources after all. So far as India is concerned, thanks to decades of reservation, there is increased participation at every level of those from each and every background. The marginalized communities and those in the fringes are visibly mainstreamed. Level playing ground is a society’s mark of civilization.