Affirmative action.(UPSC CSE Mains 2021 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 1)
- Disadvantaged groups are a part and parcel of our socio-economic and political formations in the form of race, colour, caste, gender and biological disability. Efforts have been on to assimilate these marginalised groups into the mainstream of socio-economic and political life, especially since the last half of the twentieth century.
- In principle, affirmative action is generally approved of as it implies that measures should be taken to ensure that all individuals are equal and to prevent or to counteract traditional and ingrained prejudicial practices by instituting positive discriminations.
- Aristotle in his Nichomchean Ethics wrote, justice is equality, as all men believe it to be quite apart from any argument. Indeed, in Greek, the word equality means justice. To be just is to be equal and to be unjust is to be unequal.
- According to Aristotle, equality means that things that are alike should be treated alike and things that are unalike should be treated unalike. Injustice arises when equals are treated unequally and also when unequals are treated equally.
- Affirmative action becomes essential in righting societal inequities. It is based on the “principle of redress”; that undeserved inequalities call for rectification. Since inequalities of birth are undeserved, these inequalities are to be somehow compensated for. According to Rawls, thus, in order to treat all persons equally and to provide genuine equality of opportunity, society must give more attention to those born into or placed in less favorable social positions. Affirmative action was established as a part of society’s efforts to address continuing problems of discrimination; the empirical evidence presented in the preceding pages indicates that it has had a somewhat positive impact on remedying the effects of discrimination. Whether such discrimination still exists today, is a central element of any analysis of affirmative action.
- In India, the marginalized sections of society have faced discrimination of the basis of caste, gender, poverty, etc. The Indian state has introduced affirmative action in the form of reservation to the marginalized groups in the public institutions and through reservation.
- For the Scheduled Castes (SCs), the principal ground for reservation has been the experience of untouchability undergone by the castes identified as SCs. The Scheduled Tribes get it because of their disabilities faced on account of their geographical locations and other characteristics. The OBCs get it because of their social and educational backwardness. Women get it because of their discrimination due to patriarchal values in society. And Economically Weaker Section get it because of their poor economic statues. They latter generally belong to those communities which cannot get reservation in other categories but need state devices for betterment. They belong to poor persons from the high castes.
- Affirmative action hence means policy initiative by the state for welfare and development of socially, educationally and educationally marginalised communities.
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