[ZESTCaste] Back to school (Opinion)

[Tarun Udwala]

http://www.newindpress.com/newspages.asp?page=f&Title=First+Editorial&;

FIRST EDITORIAL Nov 17, 2006

Back to school
Friday November 17 2006 08:15 IST
The quota debate is at a crucial stage

We are at a point where we can either raise the debate and, therefore
hopefully, the policy on positive discrimination. Or we can, frankly,
produce a very big mess. The Sachar Committee report on Muslim social
conditions will land right in the middle of a public arena already
roiling with extension of OBC reservations in higher education and
judicial observations on excluding the privileged among the
disadvantaged, the so-called creamy layers. The government will have
to handle a clamour of demands; some ministers have already been
irresponsible enough to ask for additional quotas, no doubt inspired
by the eventual success that Arjun Singh achieved in extending OBC
quotas. There will inevitably be legal challenges as well as high and
low debates on the constitutionality of some proposals. It is up to
the government to keep the focus on some key issues. This is being
done in the discussion on affirmative action in the private sector.
Because industry is well organised and articulate, the menu of
solutions has transformed from quota ad hocism to affirmative action.
The latter isn't ready to formulate it but industry, is ready to work
with the government.

Similar common sense is desperately needed in other reservation
debates. Take the Muslim question. Sensible commentators have already
pointed out that to take the community as one un-stratified mass is
wrong. That the truly disadvantaged Muslims are unlikely to benefit
from a wholesale quota policy, especially when it applies to jobs and
higher education. There would also appear to be significant regional
differences in Muslim social conditions that bolster the conclusion
that general economic dynamism can act as a good positive
discrimination tool. And, as these columns have already argued, access
to reasonable quality schools is the single biggest factor that
determines life chances.

It is perfectly true that many of these considerations apply to other
social groups as well. There's a respectable argument, for example,
that quotas for OBCs in higher education do not help poor OBCs; for
them access to schools remains the crucial impediment. It is also true
that politicians have traditionally chosen to ignore this kind of
argument. Many will be tempted to do the same again. They should know
the costs will be much higher.