Quit Quota: Chanderbhan Prasad
February 20, 2011: The Pioneer
An OBC friend recently told me, “Quit quota by the third generation.¶ When I questioned his thesis, he explained, “The fundamental goal of reservations is to take out beneficiaries of reservation from the basket of reservation. This is the finest justification of reservations — that reservations liberates, makes beneficiaries by generation third equal to others,¶ he insisted.
A police officer by profession, my OBC friend, an Yadav in fact, is a thinking man, and well read. I will forever remain grateful to him for this wonderful idea.
As a public policy instrument, reservations not only galvanised Dalits, but also helped create a Dalit middle class. I got highly excited when he argued that “Even if by the third generation (in which the father is a school teacher and son a civil servant, doctor, or engineer) the grandson still seeking reservation, it gives a bad name to the revolutionary idea of reservation,¶ he explained.
“Even if the third generation is not capable of competing in the open category, then either the ideology of reservation is wrong or there is some problem with the community itself, he continued explaining.
We both agreed that hounded, segregated, and despised for centuries, Dalits are justified in seeking reservations than Upper Castes seeking similar facility from the British for ICS. But, for how many generations can a family keep using reservation?
I can cite dozens of examples I know myself where third generation Dalits are still seeking a place in the reservation basket. Here I am not talking about those Dalits in whose family the father is a landless farm worker, son school teacher, and grandson wanting to become an inspector under the quota regime.
That’s OK. I am talking about those Dalits in whose family the father is a school teacher/clerk/ constable and son Civil Servant/ Doctor/ Engineer/ Professor and the grandson is still applying in the reserved category.
Those uncomfortable with the rise of Dalits use this as a pretext to question reservations. “Look, even by the third generation these fellows need reservations,¶ they would say. “Few thousand Dalit families have monopolised reservations,¶ they lament. “Even by the tenth generation they would still need reservations,¶ they add. By implication, they mean that Dalits can never be competitive.
Are the critics, mostly upper Castes, completely wrong? There are cases I know where a host of Dalit families use reservations multiple times. The father is a school teacher, son a Civil Servant, who also acquired a gas agency/petrol pump in the name of his wife, and grandson still applying in the reserved category. After retirement, the Civil Servant father is seeking a ticket in the reserve category to enter the Assembly or Parliament.
Isn’t it a joke on the wonderful ideology of reservations? Unspoken and not articulated so far, even within the Dalit underclass there is a growing discontent over the Dalit upper middle class. “They monopolise all the benefits under reservations,¶ such views are held matching those of the critics.
Fond of experimenting with ideas, I often subject newer ones to tests. To the benefit of the critics of reservations, let me say that already a good number of second generation Dalits are opting out of the reservation basket. I know at least two young Dalits, a boy and a girl belonging to two Civil Servants fathers, who are headed to the US for higher studies. I know their CBSE scores, both score above 90 per cent and they can qualify even in the open category — and most certainly in the reserved category. I also know a good number of Dalits who have joined MNCs on their own merit. Search any matrimony website and go to the SC column. You will find hundreds of them advertising positions they hold in the private sector.
Let me now turn to the idea tests. In a deliberate move, I pick up some of my upper Caste friends and narrate them the stories of second generation Dalits opting out of reservation basket and competing successfully in the open category. “That’s the power of reservations,¶ they would exclaim. “Reservations is a great empowering tool,¶ they would agree as I prolong the conversation.
I, at the same time, tell stories of how a particular Dalit Civil Servant got a petrol pump in the name of his wife under the reserved category, pushed his son into writing for the Civil Service under reserved category, and is now planning to contest elections under the reserved category. “There are greedy people in all communities,¶ they would say with some hesitation. They actually mean something else; that these kind of Dalits are giving a bad name to Dalits and also to reservations.
Quitting reservations by the third generation produces double benefits — the mainstream society develops respect towards Dalit families quitting the quota basket, and the seats vacated remain within the community resulting in expansion of the Dalit middle class
