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 Only reservtion for dalits is not enough: Kainth

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/11498/38/

Only reservtion for dalits is not enough: Kainth
VERINDER SAREEN
Sunday, 03 August 2008
NAWANSHEHAR: Former MP and president of Bahujan Samaj Morcha Satnam
Singh Kainth said on Sunday that in the present scenario in which the
entry of private sector in different aspects of life has thrown up new
issues and challenges, only pressing for reservations would do Dalits
no good.

Addressing a meeting of party workers here yesterday, Kainth said the
increasing gap between the rich and the poor, collapse of vital
sectors like health and education, increase in unemployment among the
poor esp. the Dalits and globalisation were the issues that were of
utmost concern at the moment. He accused the SAD-BJP alliance in
Punjab of failure on all fronts. Atrocities on poor had increased and
there was frustration among them as no one was listening to their
grievances in the state, said Kainth who urged his cadres not to
become a tool in the hands of power-hungry politicians.

An awareness programme had been prepared for creating awakening on
vital issues among the poor and the Dalits, he added.

Summary of discussions on privat sector reservation conducted by http://www.dgroups.org/groups/Reservation4dalits

Dgroups is a joint initiative of Bellanet, DFID, Hivos, ICA, IICD, OneWorld, UNAIDS and World Bank.

Excuse the rough structure. Many of the arguments are extracts in the interest of brevity. For complete details, contact http://www.dgroups.org .

Arguments in favor of

----------------------------------------------------

(Suneet )

If public companies can be privatized, so why reservation can not be privatized?

If all the negatives of privatization, for example jobs cut, we are accepting, why can’t we do justice to the backward communities.

Private sector must be socially responsible. It can’t be like Union Carbide. Enforcing reservations is must for them to recognise the social realities.

The belief that people come in through reservations are not competent, is not true. In private sector large number of employees are come in through references, why they can not admit reservations?

Employment policies need to be justified, so as not to create two different India and eventually no India.

Reservation is to broaden the base of recruitment; otherwise the India can’t make it to development. It prevents the modernisation of India.

Since private Educational Institutions also are getting funds from Government, so why there should be no reservations? Elite education for some and narrow education for rest is not good.

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(Arjun)

Corporates are taking advantage of the infrastructure developed by government. Participation in development is what we want.

The corporate sector is dominated by the people of higher class and caste, unless we are going to give reservations, downtrodden communities are not going to develop.

Rich are getting admissions in private colleges by paying capitation fees, no one is questioning their merit, and we only say that SC/ST candidates are selected at lower marks only due to reservations.

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(Sunil)

How can a country develop without the development of it’s 85 per cent people. This is the participatory side of the development. If there were more participation there would be more economic growth and more development.

The issue of merit raised by the private companies is a non-issue. Merit is nothing but an oppourtunity. If you give oppourtunity to anyone, he will develop merit.

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(Nazeeb)

In no way, reservations should be forced on the private sector -- it should be voluntary and merit based. However, corporate houses could offer to train those belonging to the reserved classes, to provide hands-on practical training which would make them more employable.

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(Vidya)

How manay upper castes took up the challenge and oppose
the social reservation that deprive Dalits dignity and even the minimum
wages. Have any of the industry leaders waged a war against it. They give
millions of rupees to the thugs, the babas, their chelas, middlemen, are
they ready to open quality schools, training centres, medical and
engineering colleges for those who are left on the margins of the society
because of the inherent racism in our society.

A plural and multicultural society like ours must give representation to
all. Reservation does not mean less efficient like merit alone cannot lead
to committment and efficiency.

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(shiv kumar)

we can not expect socially disadvantaged peoples to compete with others without reservation. it would provide a level plaing field.

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(Pradeep)

1. It seems we have again come back to the old argument of merit. But is n’t merit an outcome of better facilities, opportunities and resources? And when some particular sections of society avail that for hundreds of years they are ensure a monopoly on merit. Are the results of even 50 years of policy implementation in Indian classical style are sufficient to move forward on a even playing basis?

2. Taking corporate example, why do many small scale industries and goods get reservation? If everything is so fair, why do you want to put an FDI limit to everything? Why are the Indian companies afraid of MNC? Are they competitive globally if they have worshipped meritocracy all these years?

3. Mr. Goyal and Mr Singhania have of course put forward the point that reservation was required after independence but its fifty years since then and because the corporate entities have to face global competition, they cannot afford reservations in Private sector. They employ people from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and they don’t discriminate on any ground except on merit which remains the sole criteria for selection. But is not that discrimination asking two unequal persons to compete on an equal footing.

4. There are two options either you try for a more level playing ground for all or you carry on with “survival of the fittest” mode where the good gets better and the bad gets worse. This is not a matter of incapability or inefficiency but a consistent denial of access to opportunities, resources and similar facilities.

5. Everybody will agree on many aspects of representation of Dalits in the corporate sector. Their representations at high, mid and lower management levels in comparison to manual labours and in some cases representation at all. The results are blindly predictable. Is n’t it discrimination. It’s another story if some corporates want to remain competitive (?) by becoming a part of this process of neo-feudalism, unfortunately many are. Hence the requirement of a policy.

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(Vidya)

Why a quota for economically poor is
agreeable and not socially poor ? It is a problem of a mindset ?

To say that the Dalits have no merit is another racist term which is a Hindu
upper caste ploy to do away with reservation. If they are such merit lovers,
all the IIT toppers should have been the best industrialists in the country
and industry should not have become the domain of a few families belonging
to certain castes. After all, Dhirubhai Ambani was not a meritorious person
as per strict rules of merit, nor was Ghanshyam Das Birla an MBA ? Were they
? But they created an empire which is a matter of pride for all of us. Merit
is actually result of opportunity. And who is asking for a bigger quota ?
Start giving a small representation and see how they function. Today, the
industry and we all believe in hire and fire so if any one does not work and
come upto the expectations, please fire him. But give him a chance.

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(Rahul)

Also, within the larger debate, both the government and the Dalits receive flak for a policy (reservations in government jobs) that has met with a fair amount of success.

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(Vidya)

Where ever Dalits
are given opportunity, they have done wonders. After all whether it was
Mahabharata written by Vyasa or Ramayana by Valmiki or Indian Constitution
by Dr Ambedkar, all of them were shudras. Where were great brainy brahmins
then ?

Question of elite coming from Dalits does not mean they should not be
provided reservation. After all it is the brahmin-baniya Kayastha elite
which is leading the upper castes ? Do they oppose this elitism ? It is
natural for the elite to represent.

We know how the Sarkari organisations and Sarkari NGOs function. To say that
all those who have entered in these organisations are due to merit is to
consider all other fools and demeritorious. We have known many Sarkari
social activists curtsy their parents and relatives by having a degree from
a University in social work and claiming to understand Indian society.
Please don't take things too technically. A social problem has to be
addressed and the issue of representation is pertinent. NGOs cannot get away
with a responsibility of giving fare representations while talking louder
about the rights and corporate's social responsiblity.

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(Shivshankar)

I would like to point out that
these Hindus who keep chanting the "merit mantra" are either truly stupid,
or more dangerously, pretending to be stupid. They refuse, or pretend to
refuse to understand that reservation is nothing to do with this
mysterious thing called merit. It is a mechanism to fight prejudice.
The pressing need for reservations is to overcome the many
thousand year prejudice that Hindus have against Dalits. For the fact is
that Dalits, with plenty of this merit, still face enormous
discrimination.

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(Wankhede)

See, reservations do not go with no quality and merit. it sounds that u r
eqating reservations
with non-merit. legally one could try n find out possible ways to have it
implemented.
after all makers and implementors of law are the one who have been party to
such situation in our society.

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(Eugene)

Good to know that you accept "reservation is a very good policy."
You "do not support it"- I can understand that you do not want to support
it. May be because you may have a background of enjoying accumulated
privileges of caste system as a member of an exploitative caste! But if you
say you do not support it "because it has not been implemented properly
wherever it has been applied." - First, I would like to know what it means
by this "wherever it has been applied".
Secondly, this is a naievely quoted dangerous argument. If this is taken
forward it would be equal to saying that 'though untouchability is abolished
in our country it is not implemented properly, so I do not support
abolishion of untouchability and let us all practice untouchability'.Or in
India democracy
has not been implemented properly, because there were booth capturing and
vote rigging, hence let us give up democracy. Or because in a democratic
country like India, 3-5 percentage of
the population is controlling 80 to 90 percentage of top administrative
posts, this is not good democracy, hence let us give up democracy and have
colonial rule.

Again you doubt "itll be successful in private sector" has to be
substantiated by sound reasons especially when it comes from the Programme
Manager of a well known and very influential organisation. Otherwise it is a
biased sweeping statement. It would be interesting to know the caste
composition of that organisation and also good to know whether that
organisation is following a policy of affirmative action as the Government
of India is doing for those sections of people, who have been exploited for
centuries on the basis of caste.

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(Udit)

In 1999, out of 481 High Court judges, only 15 were of a Scheduled Caste (SC) background. In 1995, Dalit participation in Group A Central Government services was just 10 per cent.

It can be said that with the help of reservations in government jobs and education, Dalits have come to participate in the mainstream. Wherever there is no reservation, such as in the media, export-import, businesses and highly skilled technical and professional jobs, they are all but nonexistent. Over more than 100 celebrities participated in the Olympics torch relay in Delhi last year, but not a single Dalit was part of it.

Those against reservation in the private sector generally say that quality will suffer. Presently, there is no reservation in private economy in India, unlike the Affirmative Action policy practised in the US. Despite that, the performance of the Indian private sector in the face of global competition has been dismal. In the US, all research is conducted by businesses. In India, research and development is taken care of by the government, upon which the businesses thrive.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

(Daya)

Being in corporate world, you probably understand the importance of network
more than any body else. You know there are many factors that affect
recruitment, not just merit. First, you need to be in the network
-formal media channels or informal people networks. Second, you need
to have recommendations. Third,
you need to be from an institution of repute. Fourth and most importantly, you
need to make favorable impressions in the eyes of the interview
committee. Note that so-called merit or competency is just ONE of the
factors. Its only a rare
occassion that merit is the SOLE factor deciding appointment ( probbaly in case
of distingushed individuals ).

Please observe there are many important factors above which depend
heavily on people's impressions and prejudices. In fact, all the
above factors I mention, depend on personal judgements. Coming to personal
judgements, let us not be naive. Having grown up in cultural
inequalities based on
religion, caste, language and class, it requires extraordinary effort
on part of any
indian to overcome these ingrained prejudices. When was the last time
people in corporate world showed interest in atrocities being
committed on dalits or human
right violations of communal groups ? When was the last time did you
hear any corporate person condemning these despicable acts ? How can
you expect these ordinary people to shed their prejudices ? How can
you expect people who are blind to violations of humana dignity to be
fair and non-discriminatory ? Does any of the human rights violation
make it to coffee-room discussions ? I am afraid not.
How can people truely overcome their pre-judices when they are not
sensitive to injustice or even feel outrage at harassment and
discriminations.
I wish people would. But, I am a practical man. I have hope in the
young of india.

What reservation entails is truely opening this new channel of
recruitment. It is a
tool to overcome the failures of our social networks. Corporate world
can still apply its usual tests of merit, competency and if required
training. I do not think this will
compromise talent in anyway. You all know so many successful CEOs from
poor or low education background. Success is , after all about drive
and desire.

How many of you remember job advertisements by private sector in
1990s ? Very few. You all know the famous " NO VACANCY " boards. How
many truely believed these boards ? Most would try to meet somebody
already working in the company. They know that one has a CHANCE of
landing a job through this
network. That was the time for nepotism. Don't tell me private sector
worried only about merit during that time. Given this track record of
private sector in india, I have doubts about corporate world
implementing these affirmative policies on its own. Remember, its
still the same people.

In US, sexual harassment or racial discrimination is a serious crime.
Most large companies train their employees ( especially managers )
about what's
right, what's wrong and what you should be sensitive to. Do we have
one single company in india, which trains its employees to overcome
their prejudices against caste, religion, gender or language ?
Without this, you will end up with a work force full of jerks. Anybody
who is not sensitive to human dignity is nothing but a jerk. Do you
seriously think we can truely compete in this global world if this
culture of bullies (that's really what casteism or communalism is all
about ) is encouraged ? I think this can only stifle the potential
to invent and create. Its the
whole society that will be a loser. Just conduct a survey among the many
indians in high tech world who went abroad looking for jobs. One of
the common themes is, complaint against work atmosphere. Most cases
involve harassment or bad management styles. I will guarantee efforts
in recognizing the prejudices of
indian society and training the workforce to overcome it, will yield
rich rewards to one and all.

Talk about law and order situation in the country. We all agree that for any
business to succeed, maintaining law and order in the society is the
most important. Which investor will feel confident about investments
in a world of
insecurity ? How can you ensure there is law and order, when you don't
provide hope for the 25% of the country's population ? Remember, this
is only a hope, not a guarantee. In this era of terrorism, such a
large, neglected population is an invitation for disaster aand social
unrest. Hope is the only thing that will dissuade the young in these
communities from resorting to violence.

Talk about service industry. How can you truely enjoy good service
in india, when
you look down upon the very people who provide these services ? If the
leaders of the society, like you guys, do not think its important to
provide hope to these low-caste people, how can you expect high
quality in their services ? How can you expect them to have the
motivation to do their best ?

How about the market economics ? How can you truely talk about
market economy, if you don't want to enable 25% of country's
population to get jobs ?
Companies that support justice will win the hearts and minds of this 25% of the
population. I recommend all dalit groups to endorse Tata products for
coming out
in support of affirmative action. Learn from the success of congress
party. It listened to the issues of the dalits. Is there an easier
way to capture this sizable market ? In one stroke, you will have
millions of people vouching for your products along with their support
for phule, ambedkar and Tatas. Just like "intel inside" is a sign of
trust, "we support reservations" will mean a caring and socially
responsible company.

You should measure the success of reservation policy in the number
of people who think this should be extended to women and minorities,
who also suffer
from the same prejudices. Do not think of this as a tool to sanction
mediocrity. This is truely a tool to ensure justice and social
responsibility. This can only create happy workforce and happy
customers, if you train them about the need for positive
discrimination. Today, there is a dalit middle class
who have the opportunity to fight for justice. They are all by
products of this "reservation " policy.

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Planning Commission member Bhalachandra Mungekar said "reservation is important because merit is acquired through opportunities. No one is born meritorious."

Arguments against

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(Pradeep)

The very nature of the new age corporate world (more so of multinationals) remains beyond the control of any individual government, they will obviously welcome job reservations but only in a “win-win” situation

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(Samir)

As far as the issue of private sector's corporate social responsibility is concerned, there is only so much that companies can do. The NGO sector can also play a major role since they are usually doing a lot of work in
various sectors.

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(Nazeeb)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) should not be seen as some kind of charity. In a competitive situation the company would fail even if it has the best CSR policies. Forcing reservation is really not going to help the issue. It’s not a question of saying no to reservations but rather creating the right kind of skilled labour for jobs.”

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(Nikihil)

I think that the private sector would have to find economic rationale in any CSR based initiative. It is therefore important that this rationale is laid in terms of hard numbers. The private sector would then begin to consider reservation for dalits more in terms of their continued existence rather as a mere voluntary effort. I am sure no amount of moral exhortation would be able to cut enough ice.

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(Sethi)

I believe that competency should be the criteria for allocating jobs. After all it’s a question of the private sector’s livelihood and therefore I strongly object to reservation of jobs for backward classes in the private sector. Social responsibility should flow from the government and not from the private sector. Will the government make good the losses, which the private sector may incur due to this policy?

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(Ravi)

The WTO requires the industry to become very competitive. So we cannot afford to recruit human resources on the basis of one’s religion. The industry has to be competitive. Then only will it generate more employment, which is in the interest of workers, industry and country. Reservation is also not in the interest of workers in a different way. It will polarise their unions on the lines of Brahamins, Ahirs, etc.

Reservation is not even discharging corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR is not about giving opium to masses, but improving their quality of life by empowering them by educating them, training them and improving their efficiency, etc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Murlidhar)

But I’m not in favour of appointing incompetent people in jobs where minimum merit is essential. Job reservation should be based on competence. The situation becomes a little difficult as far as legally enforcing reservation in the private sector is concerned. The private sector is unlike the state. Reservation in this sector certainly has to be voluntary. According to a study conducted in 1960, Gujaratis and Marwaris in Mumbai would not employ Muslim workers in their mills. This mindset should change and we should adopt an egalitarian outlook. The Constitution guarantees the freedom to business under Article 19 so legal enforcement of reservation in the private sector would be difficult to achieve.

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(Geetha)

Even if a new legislation is enacted for reservation in the private sector, it's likely to be struck down because it denies the employers the right to hire people on merit and the freedom to carry on their business.

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(Manisha)

Other Issues that need to be taken Care

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(Pradeep)

But I am afraid we are missing on some hard realities, where our focus must be strengthened i.e. that of enrollments of SC/STs in technician and higher education, unless which this policy will only help in creating a pool of low end manual laborers rather than acting as a mean of bridging the gap. I will try reasoning for it as I go.

Unless we change this situation, job reservations in corporate sector, which are mostly technical and need skilled manpower, it will remain largely ineffective.

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(Goldy)

We need to stand and demand for the land rights of Dalits and this is the most crucial issue that often we forge or forget maybe quite conveniently since that is a tougher task at large.

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(Arjun)

Backward communities do not have land to till or capital to invest, jobs are the only way out. Both land reforms and reservations need to go hand in hand.

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(Samir)

Most companies look at competency and skill level when they hire people. They do so, so that these people can contribute to a company's growth and business. As long as Dalits (scheduled castes and tribes) are able to contribute to a company, there should not be a problem. If they don't fit
in the structure, it would be a problem for the company as well as Dalit employees themselves. When we hire people, we don't look at their class or caste. We look at competence.

So, I would say that the focus should rather
be on skill building of Dalits to enable them to avail of equal
opportunities. So that they neither see themselves as Dalits nor feel lesser than anybody else in a company. Similarly others should not look at them as Dalits.

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(Viraf)

Even leading companies in India having yet to fully understand and utilise the process of development of a 'diversity policy' as a responsible voluntary commitment towards re-designing its human capital for tomorrow's marketplace, and discovering through such a process the business case for such a shift over!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

(Uniyal)

Apart from such stray occasions I don't think the media persons are ever in touch with any Dalits whatsoever. So, it is not that the media ignores the Dalits or the Dalit issues. The fact is that the media just does not know what the Dalits are, how they live, what they think or whether at all they think about anything other than their daily struggles, or how and what they feel about the world around them and beyond. Most media persons come from urban, Engliah speaking, upper caste and upper class families which have no interaction whatsoever with the Dalits except perhaps with their sweepers and sweepresses. Even these they seem to notice only on occasions when they need to scold them for not doing their job properly.

The second thing that can be done is for media organisations to require that all new recruits spend a couple of months, if not a couple of years, in the beginning of their careers in rural areas as the IAS and the IPS recruits have to do in their early years. That will certainly be useful in bringing them face to face with the realities of life in villages where most of the most oppressed of the oppressed Dalits live.

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(Goldy)

What my analysis says is that these NGOs had been co-opted in the larger politics of globalisation. It is quite difficult for them to come out of this tangle as such. Hence it is time to think beyond this NGOism and move further in the right direction through reaffirming the Dalit identity, culture and dignity.

Reservation for dalits in NGOs is a postive
suggestion. But,most of these NGOs are dominated
by upper caste Hindus and minorities. Most of them are
similar in their attitude to Dalits/Tribals.

And in consideration of the requirements of the
job market, we should focus on providing education, skill building and
vocational training for the Dalits.

http://news.oneindia.mobi/2007/08/10/411490.html

UP goes for voluntary reservation in private sector