Concluding part of Reservation (Quota System) Vs Real development of the underprivileged
Any effort to uplift the underprivileged people of our society should ideally begin with rightly identifying those who really need support from the Government. They must be classified as underprivileged based on their economic and living conditions, not based on their religion or caste. To provide equal opportunity to every citizen of the country, the current generalized classification based on religion and caste must be replaced with more precise income based classification. This must be done before planning for and implementing welfare programs or distributing quotas.
Once the Government identifies economically underprivileged individuals and families, it must provide them adequate counsel and assistance, until the cumulative income of the family raises to a level where their basic needs are fulfilled without constraints and until the family becomes an economically self-reliant unit of the society. It will help members of the family pursue aspirations that will help them step out of economic backwardness by making them capable of creating sustainable value that they can transact with the society.
In doing so, the Government should have a time bound vision. It must support individuals and families to raise themselves from disadvantaged conditions. And once this objective is achieved, that is, when an underprivileged family's economic and living conditions raise substantially, it should be de-listed from the underprivileged classification and grants offered to them should be brought to a happy closure. Remaining backward should not become an eternal virtue that will be passed as a family trait through generations. If it has to end, let it end in one's very lifetime within a stipulated period of years.
Creating a level playing ground for all
Now the core focus must go into strengthening facilities and support systems that will prepare individuals to stand up to any competition. This can be achieved even without classifying people as privileged or underprivileged by making Government facilities and support systems free for all and ensuring that its standards are far superior to any private institution training students for a fee. And for the progressive development of individuals, further beyond academic studies, Government must provide training and development, resources and guidance with which individuals can augment their knowledge, skill, and performance to ascending levels. It could also do so by providing educational grants to underprivileged aspirants and by regulating the private sector to accommodate these aspirants to educate/train themselves. Lack of wealth should not become a demoralizing factor or be a stumbling block to anyone who aspires to become skilled and productive.
Religion and caste should not be a criterion for offering rights and grants to citizens while in the meantime no individual must be denied rights and opportunities in the name of religion and caste. Let all citizens be treated at par and be provided with equal rights and opportunities and be encouraged to endeavor and qualify to take up sustainable forms of productive labor, which they aspire to.
And any form of discrimination and oppression based on communal or caste lines must be dealt with timely and fear instilling punishment. Once the pre-conditions for a level playing ground is set, the Government should do away with community certificates. Community certificates should be replaced with renewable financial certificates, which should be reviewed year on year. No public or private institution in the social forum should be allowed to show bias or inclination towards any individual based on their caste or religious identity. Merits, skills, and productivity alone should be considered as the sole eligibility criterion.
“Excellence should be made the only criterion, after ensuring a level playing ground for everyone to excel, by means of free access to resources, facilities and support systems.”
As an immediate measure to clean up the present quota system, the Government should carry out an extensive survey to categorize people based on their current economic conditions. Wealthy individuals within communities that enjoy reservation should be flagged as ineligible for reservation or those who are financially well-off should be asked to voluntarily give up their reservation right, like how the Government ran a campaign on LPG subsidy. This can be an interim step. Parallely a list of economically underprivileged candidates from the open category should be identified. Both these lists should be merged into a single list of eligible beneficiaries. The next vital step to follow should be to replace reservation with granting free access to resources, facilities, training, and financial grants to the new single list of eligible beneficiaries (based on individual and family income), to aid them to become totally self-competent and not dependent on any reservation or quota.
These efforts can provide a credible and sustainable alternative to the present reservation based quota system. They can bring in uniform growth among citizens of the country and pave way for the end of caste-communal distinction and politics in the society.
Any effort to uplift the underprivileged people of our society should ideally begin with rightly identifying those who really need support from the Government. They must be classified as underprivileged based on their economic and living conditions, not based on their religion or caste. To provide equal opportunity to every citizen of the country, the current generalized classification based on religion and caste must be replaced with more precise income based classification. This must be done before planning for and implementing welfare programs or distributing quotas.
Once the Government identifies economically underprivileged individuals and families, it must provide them adequate counsel and assistance, until the cumulative income of the family raises to a level where their basic needs are fulfilled without constraints and until the family becomes an economically self-reliant unit of the society. It will help members of the family pursue aspirations that will help them step out of economic backwardness by making them capable of creating sustainable value that they can transact with the society.
In doing so, the Government should have a time bound vision. It must support individuals and families to raise themselves from disadvantaged conditions. And once this objective is achieved, that is, when an underprivileged family's economic and living conditions raise substantially, it should be de-listed from the underprivileged classification and grants offered to them should be brought to a happy closure. Remaining backward should not become an eternal virtue that will be passed as a family trait through generations. If it has to end, let it end in one's very lifetime within a stipulated period of years.
Creating a level playing ground for all
Now the core focus must go into strengthening facilities and support systems that will prepare individuals to stand up to any competition. This can be achieved even without classifying people as privileged or underprivileged by making Government facilities and support systems free for all and ensuring that its standards are far superior to any private institution training students for a fee. And for the progressive development of individuals, further beyond academic studies, Government must provide training and development, resources and guidance with which individuals can augment their knowledge, skill, and performance to ascending levels. It could also do so by providing educational grants to underprivileged aspirants and by regulating the private sector to accommodate these aspirants to educate/train themselves. Lack of wealth should not become a demoralizing factor or be a stumbling block to anyone who aspires to become skilled and productive.
Religion and caste should not be a criterion for offering rights and grants to citizens while in the meantime no individual must be denied rights and opportunities in the name of religion and caste. Let all citizens be treated at par and be provided with equal rights and opportunities and be encouraged to endeavor and qualify to take up sustainable forms of productive labor, which they aspire to.
And any form of discrimination and oppression based on communal or caste lines must be dealt with timely and fear instilling punishment. Once the pre-conditions for a level playing ground is set, the Government should do away with community certificates. Community certificates should be replaced with renewable financial certificates, which should be reviewed year on year. No public or private institution in the social forum should be allowed to show bias or inclination towards any individual based on their caste or religious identity. Merits, skills, and productivity alone should be considered as the sole eligibility criterion.
“Excellence should be made the only criterion, after ensuring a level playing ground for everyone to excel, by means of free access to resources, facilities and support systems.”
As an immediate measure to clean up the present quota system, the Government should carry out an extensive survey to categorize people based on their current economic conditions. Wealthy individuals within communities that enjoy reservation should be flagged as ineligible for reservation or those who are financially well-off should be asked to voluntarily give up their reservation right, like how the Government ran a campaign on LPG subsidy. This can be an interim step. Parallely a list of economically underprivileged candidates from the open category should be identified. Both these lists should be merged into a single list of eligible beneficiaries. The next vital step to follow should be to replace reservation with granting free access to resources, facilities, training, and financial grants to the new single list of eligible beneficiaries (based on individual and family income), to aid them to become totally self-competent and not dependent on any reservation or quota.
These efforts can provide a credible and sustainable alternative to the present reservation based quota system. They can bring in uniform growth among citizens of the country and pave way for the end of caste-communal distinction and politics in the society.