Time to De-Reserve Our Society

Reservation is not a privilege! Neither it is an honour or a matter of pride.

Reservation is no less than an indictment of our system. A tool for our politicians to appease some sections of the society to garner votes in the name of isonomy. It might cater well to the 'social equality' argument but completely falls flat when faced-off with the 'economic efficiency' argument.

We already have caste-based quotas to divide our nation horizontally and now a new gender-based quota is also in the foray to further split it, this time vertically. Although yes, this reservation system cannot be adjudged worthless in its entirety. The utopian intent of the makers of the constitution, was what formed the basis for this setup. But now, however, it is well past its prime and is doing more harm than benefit the social fabric (Jaat andolan in Haryana & Patidar andolan in Gujarat). It should be, like all other outdated systems, discarded rather than making more additions to it.

A country like India, which dreams of competing with globally well established brands and become a superpower in near future cannot afford to be dictated by a system as regressive as this one. Our nation, which will officially be the youngest nation in the world, in about a couple of years, must do away with reservation ideology if it wants its 'superpower dream' to solidify.

The objective of our current and future regimes should solely be on economic efficiency and better quality of human resources employed especially in government departments so that our public sector flourishes.

But Alas! It's not easy to pull down an establishment, whose foundations are so firm, in one go. Yet, if not completely & immediately, there surely is a lot of room for improvisation. Like the one suggested by educationist-reformist Sonam Wangchuk in which he says that only one generation should get the benefit of quota. Or we can move by & by and start with taking certain vital-for-economy sectors out of its ambit like medicine and education.

Now are the times, when only capability and potential should be the major criterion for someone to be fit to hold the highest echelons. Be it a dalit, a Muslim or a woman, let no one use these traits as crutches to climb higher in his/her career.

Talking about the Women's Reservation Bill, gender equality cannot be achieved with mere 33% seats for women in the Parliament. If gender equality is what they really want then the proportion should be increased to 50%. 50% men and 50% women is what would actually define gender equality. In my opinion, women are capable enough to carve out a niche for themselves be it politics or any other field. And besides, there are a variety of other ways to promote women participation.

When Indira Gandhi and Pratibha Patil became the Prime Minister & President of India, respectively, they did not cry for quota. Likewise, nobody needs quotas to succeed in his/her endeavours.