Reservations: Far too few have understood it right

Developments in Gujarat are saddening and a foretaste of tensions ahead. The problem is not one of reservation in post-graduate medical education; this is only a proximate cause. Nor is it confined to Gujarat; it is national. Events in Gujarat should not be viewed in episodic terms; they more truly reflect aspects of conflict and accommodation as part of a deeper process of social change.The "Harijan atrocity", a countryside phenomenon, has come to town. Virtually every so-called atrocity, if investigated, can be traced to a Harijan (or Adivasi) demanding his legitimate dues such as land and minimum wages. The "atrocity" is the episode or event - proximate, transient; the more important underlying factor is an assertion by the underdog of social and economic rights. Likewise rape is both an intensely repulsive event and, more often than not, an expression by those who feel threatened by social change of a traditional master-servant relationship which they are determined to uphold. They are asserting authority and possession.Social and economic improvement and opportunity have promoted mobility. Reservations provided a ladder for upward movement of disadvantaged Harijans, Adivasis and other backward classes. As long as the reserved seats were not fully taken, because there were so few at the threshold, there was little complaint. Now that the situation is becoming increasingly competitive with too many urban educated youth chasing too few jobs, and that too mostly in government or related public institutions the shoe has begun to pinch. Symbols are important, but symbolism is not enough. The founding fathers wrote the principle of reservation into the Constitution as a transitional provision, as part of a larger process of social and economic transformation. Resentment and anger is greatest among the rising middle class standing on the next higher rung of opportunity, since it is they that must yield to those moving ahead on the reserved track. The economic interest of a relatively few is easily combined with the lingering social prejudice of the relatively many to light the urban tinder box.Lesson: Social polarisation in the affected areas of Gujarat is complete. There has been marked consolidation among the dalits while there has been a certain closing of savarna ranks to teach the "upstart" Dhedas (a contemptuous term for Harijans) a lesson and remind them of their place in society.This, ultimately, is the issue and not reservation in postgraduate medical education or even reservation as such, even if the junior doctors spearheading the anti-reservation agitation do not themselves honestly perceive it as such. Witness the threatened agitation by panchayat employees and ESI para-medical staff, among others; the social boycott of savarnas (upper caste) sympathetic to the dalits; the disinclination of the junior doctors to accept the Government's offer to create as many additional post-graduate seats as are reserved (with matching clinical and hospital teaching-beds). Witness also the deliberate efforts being made to forge a united urban-rural front of savarnas against the Harijans in what already threatens to become a caste war. Equally noticeable is the absence of rancour against the Adivasis (who command a larger proportion of reserved seats in Gujarat: 13 per cent against 7 per cent for Harijans and 5 per cent for 82 other backward classes as defined by the Baxi Commission). The ransacked interior of a Harijan's house in Gujarat: Social polarisation is completeThis is because few Adivasis are yet qualified to compete let alone occupy the seats reserved for them, the unfilled quota lapsing to the Harijans by virtue of "inter-changeability". This facility has now been withdrawn by the Gujarat Government in post-graduate medical admissions along with the principle of "carrying forward" of unfilled reservations from one year to the next, subject to a maximum reservation of 45 per cent in any year.It is noteworthy that the main fury of the anti-reservation agitation has been limited to the three central Gujarat districts of Ahmedabad, Mehsana and Kheda where the Patidars or neo-Patels who have risen to political power and economic prosperity over the past 50 to 70 years fear being edged out by a so-called KHAM Congress(I)-led combination of Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim. The Adivasis are geographically located in the periphery of heartland. Gujarat, that is, in the extreme south and north and along the eastern highlands and are therefore not visible. Some recent communal tensions are however ascribed to efforts to prise Muslims away from the KHAM fold. It is also evident that while the first phase of the agitation was aimed against the Harijans, the subsequent phases have largely been against the Government, with destruction of public property in savarna areas.The role of the Gujarat press in Ahmedabad has allegedly been grossly partisan. It is accused of distortion, fabrication, and sensationalism in blacking out the violent misdeeds of savarna miscreants and portraying the Harijans as being on a rampage. It is also charged with communal incitement and reluctance to print corrections and contradictions. These are grave accusations and call for impartial scrutiny and, if true, for remedial action through the pressure of public and professional opinion. Upper caste medical students' representatives in New DelhiThe press has a mediatory role to play in the complex and delicate process of social change through the dissemination of prompt and accurate information. Failure to understand, let alone perform, that role in these increasingly turbulent times is to pose a social danger the same thing happened in the context of Assam, though censorship is clearly not the answer.Incidents like the mob attack on Dethroi village in Viramgam taluka of rural Ahmedabad district, some 40 km from The capital,in which 38 houses were set ablaze on February 28- one of 19 villages attacked in the course of the agitation-are not generally known. Nor the fact of refugee movements. Insecure rural Harijans have migrated to town, though some urban Harijan colonies have also been attacked. The dalits have reacted defensively and, in some cases, offensively too. The inadequacies of police training, organisation and intelligence have once again been shown up and needless brutalities have been committed while the police itself has become a target of attack.The question of merit and standards is often raised, especially in the context of post-graduate education and professional occupations. The argument is not without substance, but can be pushed too far. As long as minimum entry standards are not sacrificed, limited preference for disadvantaged groups is a socially viable and even desirable principle. First generation students and those from deprived homes are handicapped in competing with those from more privileged backgrounds. Examinations and test scores are not culture-free. And up to a point reservations are for social classes rather than for individuals, the object being to elevate individuals from historically disadvantaged and exploited communities to levels of high visibility where they serve as symbols of hope and of a new order.There is another aspect of "standards" and "merit" that is particularly evident in the medical field. Medical education is among the most highly subsidised branches of medical education, but does not bear proportionate relevance to the real health needs of the mass of the population, whether rural or the urban poor. In such a context, individual "merit" has tended to become an exercise in self-aggrandisement with low social value. Scheduled caste counterparts from Gujarat: Too many urban youth chasing too few jobsWhat standards should we seek? If dalit students seek to enter the portals of post-graduate medicine it is partly because this is a prerequisite for an appointment in medical colleges, for setting and evaluating papers, and for gaining access to superior positions like that of a civil surgeon, the social value of which at this juncture is of as much concern to disadvantaged communities as its economic potential.Larger Purpose: Symbols are important, but symbolism is not enough. The founding fathers wrote the principle of reservation into the Constitution as a transitional provision, as part of a larger process of social and economic transformation. What numbers do reservations touch - and that too in the relatively limited Government and public sector? And which strata of Harijans and Adivasis have benefited from reservations? Obviously the elites among them, leaving untouched the vast submerged mass at the base. Shorn of the larger package, reservations have to some extent become a system of co-option. No surprise therefore to learn that the influential Harijan MP representing the reserved seat that includes Dethroj village had not cared to visit the scene of the holocaust and comfort his constituents a full month after the event.Thirty-four years after Independence, the vast majority of the all-too-numerous millions living below the poverty line are Harijans and Adivasis. So too, the great majority of the nation's estimated 2.6 million bonded labourers. The Directive Principles that would have benefited these unfortunate and neglected categories remain unimplemented. Universal literacy is yet a distant goal. Brakes have been applied on the national adult education programme and the community health volunteer scheme. Agrarian reform has been stalled on the ground over large parts of the country. The burden of marginalisation, malnutrition, unemployment and suffering falls heavily on this historically deprived section of the population.Is this then time to end reservation? Has the larger purpose it was intended to serve been fulfilled? Surely not. There are distortions and borderline cases that need correction. Socio-economic criteria should progressively be introduced so as to avoid reverse discrimination and an avoidable backlash. Above all, we have to recognise and commit ourselves to lifting the social base well above penury and exploitation and creating more space within it so that there is more and fairer opportunity for all. This is the meaning of Gujarat. Far too few have understood it right.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 22, 2013 14:19 IST--- ENDS ---

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Reservations: Far too few have understood it right

Developments in Gujarat are saddening and a foretaste of tensions ahead. The problem is not one of reservation in post-graduate medical education; this is only a proximate cause. Nor is it confined to Gujarat; it is national.

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