Solving the reservations conundrum

I have been a recent convert to supporting reservations after having lost out fairly early in my career to the ‘scourge’ of reservations. Reservations attempts to address a far more complicated dynamic of how castes have evolved over the last 1500 years or about the time when we stopped intermarrying. There are some who argue that the system of jati (caste) was actually good until the advent of Industrial revolution and British rule when Indians ill equipped for the ‘new’ times fell into hard times and poverty. I cannot argue whether it worked or not but practices like untouchability, manual scavenging and even marrying within caste belong to another day and time. Today, the worst evidence of the negative impact of Casteism is seen in white collar corporate India where the levels of representation (Own research of NIFTY 500 CEOs) even from OBCs is quite low, leave aside SCs/STs and women. White collar corporate India is significantly over represented by HUM (Hindu Upper Caste Male). Only the IT industry is probably well represented by OBC employees given the large Engineering pool emerging from the South (This is an observation, no published research) and the fact that these States have had OBC reservations for a long period of time. 

Given this evidence, can one make an argument that reservation works? There are numerous research papers should that reservations work and have done so particularly after liberalisation of 1991. In my view, the best evidence of whether reservations works is to look at the State with the highest reservations and reservations that have been there for a very long time. Tamil Nadu is the only state that has been more than competitive with Gujarat in recent times and has been the best performing State in the last 45 years. There are numerous reasons why Tamil Nadu does well but one statistic should never be forgotten - It has 69% reservations. If indeed reservations did not work, how is it that State with the highest reservations and for the longest time is also the best performing State in the last 45 years? Another State with high reservations and has done relatively well in the last 45 years is the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh, it had 49% reservations.  

In my view reservations not only positively impact individuals and their households but has a massive role modelling effect amongst their relatives and the communities they live in, particularly if these communities are poor and have seen little economic and social success in the past. These creates an environment that spawns a culture of learning and academic achievement which in turn drives overall academic quality. This article in Manushi explores the impact of reservations and is a recommended reading. Of course there is a negative impact too and particularly looked from the prism of merit. I recognise that and hence this article.

My own study of reservations over the last 18 months revealed two major insights on why some castes struggle and others don’t and therefore a solution to gradually doing away with reservations.

Insight no. 1: Cultural factors play a very important role. In the mid-80s, India’s literacy levels hovered around 50%, it hovers around the mid-70s now. Most of the low literacy househoulds were SC/STs and Backward Classes. So, many of the households had parents who had absolutely no exposure to the written word and probably has been the case for generations. In upper caste and even some OBC households, the nature of how the castes evolved meant that there was some culture of learning and using the written word in the family, may be even some formal education. The difference in education background has a significant impact on how parents look at education and specifically when it comes to in-home mentoring and teaching. In the average upper caste household and some OBC households, there is an understanding of the importance of education as there is some education already (however little) and in many ways, they are in a position to offer some support to the child at home in the initial years of schooling. Even in the later years, the culture encourages the child to atleast complete secondary school and acquire a vocation in services. In contrast an OBC/SC/ST household with no experience of the written word can do little to support the child beyond words of encouragement. Also, the poor state of the economy meant that it was in the best interest of the household to probably sacrifice school for working in the farms of the parent’s profession and acquire manual skills. This differing home cultures meant that some children were better acquired with learning than others.

But the larger question is, why has the home become so important? Shouldn't the school be taking care of this?

Insight 2: Part of the reason that the household environment is becoming extremely crucial is because the quality of our schools was and is terrible. Whether it is access, teaching quality or infrastructure the standards have been appalling. While the overall quality has improved since 1986, it is nowhere near the Standards China achieved in the late 1960s. Yes, you read that right, 50 years ago, China attained more in literacy and education than what we have achieved today. When you overlay that with our historic caste problem and you have created a huge mess where lower caste kids donot have a supportive environment either at home or at the school to acquire the skills needed in the modern economy. 

Combining the above two insights suggest that the best way to solve our caste problem is to fix both adult and primary education. Ensuring minimum education to Adults in the crucial age group 30-40 years and high quality primary education to children in the age group 8-15 years will have a substantial impact on how well children of all castes and religions are prepared for their future in the job market. It would also mean that cultural factors would play a much lesser role in determining who does or does not do well in entrance exams and the overall quality of students entering colleges goes up significantly (for all castes). Yes, this is a long process and cannot be achieved overnight but a serious effort driven by the PM and all CMs is extremely important, this cannot be achieved by saying good things only.

The question is, how can this solve the ‘problem’ of reservations immediately?

The above insights actually offer a clue. In my view, the immediate decision by the Governments across States should be to grade Schools into 3 groups (say A/B and C) as per a variety of factors including learning achievement (Modified DISE and NAS can assist in this process). Once the grading is done, OBC/SC/ST students from the top grade of the schools must not be eligible for any reservation. Given the digitisation of board examination results, this is way better than the income proofs provided by OBC students which determines creamy layer. The reason that the students from the top grade must not be eligible for reservations is because the two factors – Cultural and School quality are not debilitating anymore in preventing the student to compete on par with students of upper caste students. Secondly, the system should constantly empower, support and pressurise groups in the B&C quality schools to keep improving quality over time. Over time, fewer and fewer schools would remain in B & C. A central reservation regulatory authority can created to keep pushing the quotas lower over a period if time depending on the OBC/SC/ST student to population ratio in Grade A schools. The higher the representativeness of the OBC/SC/ST students in these schools, the quotas would be lower and thes Grade A students would anyway not be eligible for the quotas. Over a period of time, the quality of students goes up and in parallel the quantum of reservations goes down.

The second decision in my view is introducing a lower cut-off in the admission process. It is appalling and unfair (even to the student) to provide admissions when the performance is significantly lower than what might be required to complete the course reasonably well. These cut-offs can vary by institutes and should ideally be determined by a Faculty dominated by OBC/SC/ST Professors with a stated Goal of moving up the cut-offs every year. The aim of this is to introduce an element of higher competitiveness amongst those in the reserved category to push them to attain higher academic standards and therefore catch up with their peers in the general category. This decision in my view has to have numerous safeguards as it should not be misused to prevent backward groups to get admission in premier institutes.

The topic of reservations brings out a lot of emotions but a study of India’s history should see this problem with empathy and patriotism. A society in which there isn’t sufficient representativeness of all communities is never likely to do well and our long term economic performance suggests that it is indeed the case. Instead of seeing reservations antagonistically, it is time to see it as a symptom of our cultural past and an outcome of the terrible quality of primary education. Recognizing the root cause problems would enable us to come up creative solutions and eventually move to a reservation free society.