1. Reservation: May God forgive them, because they do not know, what they are doing. What an innocent lot? They do not even know, that, for serving their little vested interests, they have thoroughly divided the society. Reservation literally means, that, we are opting for doing something, which is slightly or substantially less than the best. There have been continuous debates, since reservations were initially introduced in the constitution of the country and naturally, there has never been any dearth of people, from almost all sections of the society for the continuation of the reservations and to bring more and more castes and other vested interests in the orbit. The stock argument is that members of the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes and all those who never had an opportunity to go up the ladder, should also have an opportunity to get into plum positions. The intentions are very good and laudable. Every country in the world has sections of people, who are living below subsistence level and they find it difficult to keep the body and soul to-gether. The difference from country to country is only in numbers. In the affluent countries of the west, the numbers are small and most of the hardship is mitigated by social security nets. In all other countries, there are large sections of people, who find it difficult to scramble two meals a day, leading to wide spread malnutrition and hunger. Whatever be the country, whatever be the creed, caste or religion and whatever be the social and economic background and political affiliations, a man in need, is also a man, who needs full help and support from the community. Billions of dollars have been spent and are being spent throughout the world for providing physical and economic relief to these unfortunate people. Relief measures are helpful and enable people to survive, but in course of time, such measures, whatever be their physical or monetary form, they end up in weakening the will of the people to stand on their own legs and to muster sufficient urge to look up and surge ahead.
2. Pandora’s Box: Pandora was an innocent little girl. The gods had gifted her a beautiful little box. They had told her not to open it. The reactions of an inquisitive child are almost spontaneous. Naturally, Pandora could not wait to see, what was inside the box and in the process, she released all the ills, ailments and miseries, that have been haunting all of us since then, in the remotest corners of the world. All politicians in almost all countries of the world are a very well meaning innocent lot. At all times, their actions and thoughts are centred round doing something for the people, who surround them. The ideas are good. The intentions are good. After all, what is wrong, if everybody, close to you has an opportunity to get a share of the pie and can find a reasonable place under the sun. Family ties and regional and caste loyalties immediately prop up and the thoughts of special treatment for all those, who are close to you, start exerting pressures, thereby, providing fertile ground for the germination of the seeds of reservation. Accordingly, after formal and informal tinkering by all sections of the people and in the larger interests for self-preservation of the high and mighty of the land, reservations found a foothold in the constitution of the country. It is where the gin got out of the bottle and all hell broke out. Weakest members of the society were clubbed as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Things appeared to be running smoothly, when whispers and murmurings from those who could not be covered, gradually became louder and louder and as a consequence, the category of Other Backward Classes found its feet. The ball did not stop rolling there. Since then, divisions and further divisions and sub-divisions of the society have found enthusiastic rallying responses.
3. Basic Problem: The basic question is, whether it is physically possible to enable all members of all castes, tribes or sections of the society and for that matter all individuals, to grab an opportunity to get into plum positions of their dreams, which they were unable to reach due to lack of proper education and available opportunities and resources. Perhaps everybody understands the problem, but, due to deep rooted vested interests, nobody has the inclination, desire or the will to talk about it. It is for everybody to see that even after sixty years of growth and development, we have more than forty percent people, living in the country below poverty line and for them, there does not appear to be any ray of hope or faintest glimmer of light, at the end of the tunnel. All these years, there has been no dearth of rural development programmes and efforts for the alleviation of poverty and thousands of crores of rupees have been spent and are being spent every year for providing relief to people belonging to rural areas and weaker sections of the society.
We may not say that all the inputs and resources have gone down the drain, but the stark fact remains, that, with the best of intentions, reservations and economic relief, it has not been possible to make any dent or impression on the problems of poverty. It helps, when rice and wheat are provided to the needy at nominal rates of Re one or Rs two per kg. It helps when programmes like food for work are launched by the state to enable the people to lay hands on something to eat. It helps when employment guarantee schemes are launched by the state for people pushed to the wall by malnutrition and hunger. It does help, when affordable housing or shelters are provided to those who have been without a roof or were living in slums. These programmes provide immediate relief to the people and in some cases, bring a ray of hope to the people for better days. However, it is sometimes, difficult to understand, that everybody, whatever be his present circumstances, nourishes some dreams. Everybody has talents and physical and intellectual resources to follow up his dreams. At a certain point of time, all relief measures are welcome, whatever be their source and whatever be their form. Still, with best of inputs and best of intentions, such measures fail to enthuse people and provide to them sufficient opportunities for useful productive work, for the utilization of their talents, experience, resources and physical and intellectual capabilities. May be, that is not intended and worse still, there may be vested interests in perpetuating the conditions of adversity and helplessness, which a common man gradually starts believing are a part of his destiny.
4. Our options: Common sense is said to be the rarest sense in the world. We may call it the third eye. Normally, the third eye remains closed. Nobody seems to be worried about it. May be, most of the people, perhaps wonder, whether there is something like a third eye. If, there is a man in need, we try to dole out something to him. Helping a man in need brings some sort of satisfaction and a sense of pride and fulfillment. That is the common trait of all mortals. So far so good. Very soon, we forget about it and get enmeshed in our daily routines. Meanwhile, the man in need continues his knocks from door to door. The third eye remains closed for most of the time and therefore, common sense rarely finds an opportunity to come into play. Everybody knows that the society, in almost every country in the world is stratified. Every country has a group of people, who have all the resources, power and privileges. Most of them are talented and hardworking people, who pick up opportunities, as and when they get them and corner almost all avenues of growth. Whereas, large sections of the people continue to struggle, almost all their lives in the quest for bare necessities of life. Today, we have the resources, technology and management skills to create, diversify and disperse substantial opportunities of fruitful productive work to enable almost everybody living in the remotest parts of the country to pick up such opportunities, for fuller utilization of their talents, experience and expertise. If we can work for it, every individual will be in a position to contribute to the happiness and prosperity of his family and growth and development of the local community and the nation. And gradually all distinctions represented by scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, minorities, people living below poverty line and economically weaker sections of the society will disappear. Our options seem to be very simple and clear. Do we want to follow the whims of the vested interests and continue reservations in employment, which benefit a very small fraction of the people or we go in for diversified growth and development, which can usher in, all types of opportunities and satisfying work in every nook and corner of the country for the teeming millions, who have been hoping against hope, all these years for better days.