The brochure on reservation in central services recently released by the department of personnel and training shows a significant uptick in the representation of SCs and STs in Group A jobs, with representation of the two groups rising from 1.64% and 0.27% in 1965 to 12.5% and 4.9% in 2008, respectively, amounting to more than a 7-fold and an 18-fold jump. This is welcome news, confirming that India is indeed moving towards an inclusive grid. But the news also requires careful decoding, coming as it does against the backdrop of increasing rather than calming clamour for reservation. We have seen the disparate likes of Mulayam Singh and Salman Khursheed united in their support for Muslims in central government jobs, the Rajya Sabha has passed a Bill reserving 33% seats for women in India?s legislatures, the suggestion that the corporate sector should reserve employment for SCs and STs keeps raising it head although industry chambers have managed to keep it subdued so far (persuasively arguing the logic of competition), etc. Reservation is essentially about alleviating inequality of access, but can it deliver independent of the counterweight of improved access to education? Between 1961-2001, literacy rate among SCs and STs climbed from 10.3% and 8.5% to 54.7% and 47.1%, respectively. This is a remarkable rise even if there remains a (much decreased) lag with the national average?28.3% in 1961, 64.8% in 2001 and 74.04% in 2011. We also have NCAER data showing the dramatic difference between the incomes of SC households headed by illiterates vs graduates. Did reservation cause the increased literacy or did increased literacy cause the improved performance? The latter seems more likely.
Urbanisation, liberalisation and economic growth have played a great role in this shifting narrative?who is bothered by the caste of the pizza delivery person? It is education and aspirations that will carry the narrative forward, hopefully to a point where reservation becomes a footnote rather than the preface.
