EDITORIALS & ARTICLES
Do you think 10% quota for economically weaker sections would bring social equality?.
The 103rd Constitutional amendment gave recognition to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). For the first time ever, economic class is constitutionally recognized as a vulnerable section & would form the basis of affirmative action program. It is a departure from the traditional centrality of caste in deciding affirmative action.
Importance of reservation to Economically weaker sections:
- Affirmative action: In order to bring economic equality for those deserving candidates from economically weaker sections.
- Greater participation from rural areas: It has been seen that the proportion of students from rural areas in the premier educational institutes of India is very poor. The reservation to the EWS would improve this ratio.
- Reducing geographic disparities: It would make it easier for the students from the poorer states to get admissions in India's educational institutions and jobs.
- Social Justice: This would mean equality of opportunities.
Considerations that should be taken into account while computation of criteria for defining EWS:
- Regional difference: regional differences create differences in purchasing power across urban/rural regions and per capita income/GDP across States must be considered to arrive at this number.
- Social status: Even within the general categories gender acts as a disability. Thus there can be a different criteria for women and transgender persons.
- Different consideration for the Post-graduates: In professional courses graduation generally leads to better income opportunities for meritorious students, which would easily lead to a breach of the limit. This would require a different criteria at a higher level.
- Ease of Implementation: Having different income limits for different geographies - rural, urban, metro or states will create complications, especially considering people have become more mobile and increasingly moving from one part of the country to another for jobs, studies, business etc.
The determination of the limit for the EWS is a complex issue, which has been in the Supreme court. The government has contended a simple criteria of ₹8Lakh being the cutoff. This is at par with the Creamy layer used for the OBC reservations in India. However given the complexity of different type of geographies, courses, job profiles, more consideration must be required to be given before implementing the criteria.
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