Crossing the Precedence Barrier; The Unfulfilled Agenda of our Reservation Policy

It was 8 in the morning and I was sipping my morning tea, gleaming with pride, having returned late last night from the US, back in India after dropping my elder one at a top US school for her post-graduation studies. And why not, she had worked hard to be where she is now. The positivity of her doing well had been egging on my parental pride. Today, my daughter was truly my lakhte jigar noor e nazar, as my grandfather would address my dad. And as I narrated to my parents how we settled her in the US school town, in came Preeti (name changed), our maid’s elder one, who’s nearly the same age as my daughter. As Preeti started with the dishes, the clangor of the utensils filled our living room. With each passing clatter from competing utensils, the edifice of my parental pride came crashing down.?

My daughter and Preeti were born pretty much around the same months. And we saw both of them grow side by side. And yet, today after two decades, I see them positioned so differently in their journey of life. As I watched her do the dishes, I was filled with deep anguish as to why she had to wash the same old dishes, that her mom used to wash at our place twenty years ago.?

While we live in a single geographical country, metaphorically speaking, I think we live in two very different countries. There’s one India that fulfills the aspirations of our youth and sends them to top institutions in India and abroad, helping them build rewarding careers. And then there’s a second India, where youths’ aspirations are systemically crushed, each day of their life. Now before anyone draws a politico-religious-castist connotation to my statement, let me tell you that our constitution and the policies of our government (current and past) have enough provisions to create a level playing field, especially through reservation for the under-privileged in education and government jobs. And in my own lifetime, I’ve seen many careers prosper because of this Reservation Policy. Our new President herself is a great role model for so many in India today.?

But then, as I sat in our living room sipping tea, I thought what good was this Reservation Policy, if it could not turn around the life of our very own Preeti. And so, I started to reflect upon the two decades that had gone by, trying to remember those key events and turning points in the life of Preeti, that may have brought her to where she is today.?

As I went down memory lane, my first recollection was about the time they started their pre-school. I realized that even though they both learned to handle notebooks and pencils at around the same time, Preeti joined a village school closer to her home while my daughter joined a private school. Thinking from the point of view of Preeti, the very first impression of class difference would’ve seeped into her mindset there and then. I distinctly remember the time when she was in class 8, Preeti struggled with Mathematics and English. With no one in her family to help, she reached out to my mom and wife. Despite their best efforts, Preeti could not clear class 10 boards. And then she tried again but failed again. And then came a shocker from her “Mathematics won’t help me wash utensils”. As if she’d already made up her mind, to follow in the footsteps of her mom. As time passed by, she gave up, partly because of her own failure but largely due to her societal precedence.

We’re all trying to climb Mount Everest. While some of us start from the base camp, thanks to our parents, a vast majority are forced to start from ground zero. And as they start to climb, there are vast many of their brethren who’ve already failed. They keep reinforcing this belief that Mount Everest can never be conquered. There are hardly any role models. This is the perception war, the Debt of Precedence, that Preeti had to conquer, but she failed. And this, I think, is the Unfulfilled Agenda of our Reservation Policy!!