|
By Deepti Priya Mehrotra A report on the discussion surrounding a recent screening of Umesh Agarwal’s ‘Divided Colours of a Nation’
One of the biggest challenges India faces today is building an equitable society. But the path seems strewn with thorns. According to filmmaker Umesh Agarwal, whose film Divided Colours of a Nation, produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust, New Delhi, was screened at the PSBT Open Frame International Film Festival in New Delhi in September: “Only 12% of the Indian population is upper caste, while 76% fall into the categories of OBC (other backward classes), SC (scheduled castes), ST (scheduled tribes). Data suggests that 12% has ruled over 76% for centuries. Now, when the majority wants to obliterate the injustice committed for centuries, the solutions are not easy to find… Educated young people are out on the streets, up in arms against any policy that reserves seats in education institutes on the basis of caste.” The screening of Divided Colours of a Nation was followed by a panel discussion ‘Revisiting Caste Reservation’, in which the participants included Professor Sukhdeo Thorat, Chairperson, University Grants Commission (UGC), political scientist Professor Gurpreet Mahajan, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), sociologist Professor Dipankar Gupta, JNU, and Professor P V Indirasen, ex-Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai. “Why,” asks 22-year-old Vandana Mishra, “did some people who scored much less than me in the medical college entrance exams get seats while I could not fulfil my dream of becoming a doctor? I have consistently been a topper, yet got left behind.” She adds wistfully: “I wouldn’t mind if those people were from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds. But most of them are from well-off families: they are part of the ‘creamy layer’.” Professor Sukhdeo Thorat explains: “There has been systematic discrimination against many castes, for many centuries. India instituted reservations in order to help those who belong to these castes to study and find employment. Within the poor, there are the ‘discriminated poor’ and the ‘non-discriminated poor’. We have a dual policy to deal with this reality. There are anti-poor policies for the ‘general’ poor. The ‘discriminated poor’ are provided further special opportunities. Caste-based reservations are an ‘equal opportunity policy’ meant to equalise opportunities available to discriminated castes.” Agarwal adds, however, that caste-based reservations have become an extremely divisive issue in India today. He says: “When I began researching for a film on reservations, people kept asking me whether I was pro-reservation or anti-reservation. Most people see the issue in black and white terms. They have taken a stand -- either reservations are good or they are bad. This is why I called my film Divided Colours of a Nation.” Thorat argues that reservations unite Indians rather than divide them, since they allow hitherto discriminated people to come forward and join the rest, by partaking of certain benefits. But the ground realities belie this view. Progressive expansion of the scope of caste-based reservations has created a large section of beneficiaries, but at the same time it has spawned a section of disgruntled ‘forward caste’ youth. Political scientist Professor Gurpreet Mahajan, JNU, notes: “In India we have a range of policies for excluded and deprived sections -- food subsidy, free schooling, scholarships, employment schemes and so on. These policies for social and economic empowerment have never become a point of contention or contestation. There is consensus on these forms of special consideration. Why do reservations, on the other hand, evoke such strong reactions?” Professor P V Indirasen, ex-Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, says: “People are angry when they find those less meritorious than themselves getting ahead. That is why there is lack of consensus on caste-based reservations. Nobody disagrees with the need to ensure equal opportunities or adequate living conditions for all.” Sociologist Professor Dipankar Gupta, JNU, says: “Reservation is not the solution for all problems. It should be carefully calibrated, in tune with specific contexts. When reservations were first introduced for SC-ST communities, nobody disagreed. The SC-ST have been asset-less, property-less, and discriminated against socially and economically for generations; a special thrust was required to support them. Problems arose when reservations were extended beyond SC-STs, to a plethora of other castes, particularly OBCs. OBCs already have assets, rural power and wealth, and are trying to leverage themselves into other kinds of power, including urban power. While reservation for SC-STs is a very good policy, there is no reasonable case for extending it to OBCs.” He adds: “Reservations should be time-bound: they should be withdrawn after a reasonable time span, say two or three generations. They are not an anti-poverty programme; they have a different rationale.” Sharad Baad, a 32-year-old entrepreneur, proves the case as regards reservations for first-generation learners among SC-STs. Born in a Chennai slum and brought up by a single mother, Baad consistently topped his class at the municipal school but twice failed to qualify in the entrance test to IIM (Indian Institute of Management), Ahmedabad, in the ‘general’ category. The third time, he applied under the SC category and won a seat. He did well at IIM and went on to start a catering business, which provides employment to a few hundred people. Reservations have helped this deserving young man realise his dreams; he is now planning a concrete home for his mother. “It feels fantastic,” he smiles. Would he want his children to take advantage of reservations? “Definitely not,” he asserts. “My children will study in good schools. I will not seek reservations for them. They will go forward as ‘general’ candidates.” K N Rao, retired IAS officer from the Andhra Pradesh cadre, recalls: “My father, a farm labourer, could not afford schooling for me. Reservations helped me to study.” Rao now lives in Whisper Valley, an elite locality in Hyderabad. His children used their SC status to qualify for admission into professional institutions. So will his grandchildren, although they were born into well-off families. “We have been discriminated against for 40 to 50 generations,” Rao argues. “We should take advantage of reservations for at least four or five generations.” As far back as 1992, lawyer Indira Sawhney challenged the validity of caste-based reservations, particularly for the so-called “creamy layer”. The Supreme Court of India upheld reservations, but articulated the principle that reservations should not be extended to the “creamy layer”. However, this principle has yet to be put into practice. While groups like Youth for Equality (YFE) are vociferously anti-reservation, other groups like Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum (PMSF) are decidedly pro-reservation. Each side provides data supportive of its position. YFE members declare that caste discrimination is a much attenuated phenomenon today. PMSF members cite figures indicating that lower castes are still clustered in menial occupations, with higher education and jobs disproportionately in the hands of the middle and upper castes. Polarisation of opinion on reservations has led to violent confrontations, right from the anti-Mandal agitations of the early-1990s, during which some anti-reservationist students went so far as to commit self-immolation. Recently, when the fairly powerful Gujjar community demanded reservations, the Rajasthan government caved in. The state now has a record 67% of seats reserved in educational institutions. All over the country, caste groups are fighting tooth-and-nail to qualify as ‘discriminated’ castes. The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), India’s apex medical college, has nearly 50% of seats reserved for various caste groups (34 out of 70 seats). Medical students have been at the forefront of the anti-reservation agitation, arguing that merit should be the sole consideration for admission into a career as demanding as medicine. Thorat holds that our youth are not being properly educated about historical deprivation and injustice in India: upper-caste youth are virtually unaware of the kinds of extreme discrimination suffered by the dalit castes at every level, even in primary schooling. Therein lies a conundrum, which many see as the unexplored heart of the problem. As Agarwal puts it: “Why has the government not provided quality primary schooling to all, even 60 years after Independence? Equality of opportunity should start from there!” Divided Colours of a Nation tracks the dismal state of schooling: in a school in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, several classes are stuffed into one room, and the teacher’s knowledge is so obsolete that she cannot recall the name of the present President of India! In Barmer’s Bhilon ki Dhani, a Rajasthani village with a 100% ST population, there is just one teacher for Classes 1 to 9. Another Barmer school is shut; a student reveals: “The teacher doesn’t come for 10 days. He comes on the 11th day and tells us, ‘Run away home!’.” An elderly peasant couple in this desert outpost, their faces furrowed with wrinkles, had donated the land for the school. “We thought we would see our children study,” they explain. “But how can they study when the master does not come?” Agarwal notes that over 50% of students fail in Rajasthan’s school-leaving exam, and hazards a theory: “Is it because of the abysmal failure of our education system -- for instance, the very high rate of failures in Rajasthan -- that different communities are fighting for a share in the pie through reservations? Is that the only way they can actually get any higher education and government jobs?” Indirasen asserts: “There is disinterest on the part of politicians to provide education to all. Our schooling is very, very poor. There is not enough talk about this kind of discrimination. We’ve bred intellectuals who are absolutely silent about discrimination against poor people.” Haneef, a poor slum-dweller in east Delhi, dreams of better options for his five-year-old son. Unable to pay the fees in a ‘good’ -- that is, private -- school, he seeks admission in the quota for weaker sections, but fails in the effort. Since the family does not qualify for reservations, he has no option but to send his son to the local municipal school. His dream of upward mobility -- a better life for his child -- lies shattered. Is it any wonder that more and more sections of society are beginning to demand reservations? And that politicians of every hue are championing the cause for various sections -- including on the basis of region, and religion! (Deepti Priya Mehrotra isa Delhi-based writer) InfoChange News & Features, September 2008
|
