Dr. B.R. Ambedkar & Caste
Reservation in Jobs
14th April –That day this year was the 130th Birth Anniversary of Dr. B. R.
Ambedkar who was popularly Known as Babasaheb ; It will not be out of
place here to write a few lines in respect of him who was one of the
greatest personalities of India in our near past ; He has contributed to the
Indian Society to a large extent in many ways among which the most
important were as follows (in brief) –
As a Social
Reformer –
During his time (and still existing to a large extent) Hindu society was
divided into various castes with full of inter-caste hatred, mainly
exhibited by the dominant upper caste people towards the ‘Shudra’s
or various other working classes ;
Dr. Ambedkar tried to bring in harmony & welfare for all ; He
understood that without solving the caste questions the Social Justice,
Social Harmony & Welfare for all could not be brought in ; His
experience with Casteism & Unapproachability opened another course
in the social change & development of Indian society ;
He founded the organizations like ‘Bahiskrt Hitkarni Sabha’, ‘Konkan
Prant Shetkari Sangh’ through which he fought for Social equality &
Social justice from the viewpoint of the oppressed people belonging to the
‘lower strata’ of the society, mainly the Dalits ;
A Role as a Builder of Indian Constitution -
Just after independence Ambedkar, with his highly educational background
was appointed as the Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee on
29th August, 1947 ; In drafting the Constitution he had deeply studied the
Constitutions of almost all the famous countries of the world, especially
of England & also of France from where he had introduced the concept
of Liberty, Equality & Fraternity in the Draft Constitution ;
He believed that the hatred between the upper & lower classes of our society
must be wiped out otherwise it will be very difficult to maintain the unity &
integrity of our country ; As he himself fought for the whole of his life to
bring in Religious, Caste & Gender Equality, his unique vision of Equality,
Prohibition of Untouchability & Caste Discrimination in all forms were well
reflected in the newly drafted Constitution of India ;
Therefore, we observe that , Dr. B.R. Ambedkar introduced, for the first
time in our country ‘The Cast Based Reservation System’ or ‘Quota System’
for the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes etc. to create a Social Balance
as much as possible in respect of Job Distribution mainly in Public Sectors ;
Recent Criticism of the
Quota System
The recent criticism as heard mainly in the urban sector intellectuals of
the upper caste Hindus are as follows (The Author’s independent
views, along with his own remarks) –
a) Was the introduction of ‘Quota System’ in getting jobs was
justified ? For getting the jobs the selection should be on the
strict Merit Basis, isn’t it ?
Remarks – The introduction of the ‘Quota System’ in getting
the jobs favoring the Students / Applicants belonging to the
SC/ST /OBC (now) as implemented by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
in our Constitution was a small attempt of him to solve the
vast social imbalance & social inequalities remaining in our
society for many centuries ;
Once, I had a discussion regarding this with a very
knowledgeable senior fellow of the upper caste (Brahmin) ;
He had opened my eyes by saying that “ Mr. Ghosh, you
come from an upper caste, it is true, as you have said that
for quota system Some competent persons of the upper caste
people are deprived of their jobs whereas Some incompetent
persons from the reserved category are getting advantage ; But
you just think that had there been no ‘Quota’ , No competent
person from the SC/ST group would be able to secure his /her
job, such was the reality in our society and that situation
would have been much more unjustified ;
b) If the introduction of Quota System was right then what is the
justification behind it’s continuation still now ? Even after 70
years of getting our Independence ?
Remarks - Because only of the facts that firstly, education
could not still be spread to a vast portion of the rural
population & secondly, cast-hatred is still persisting
among a large portion of our both rural & urban society ;
c) All right, once an applicant from the SC/ST group of people gets
a job through the ‘Quota System’ he may be taken for granted to
be accepted as belonging to the privileged class, then what is
the justification behind getting him again protected by the Quota
System throughout his future service life also, i.e. in respect of
his/her future service benefits like Promotion etc. ?
Remarks : The same answer as above, i.e. he/she still needs be
protected from the caste based Social Stigma which may
be existing in respect of getting promotion also ;
There had
been many other prominent contributions of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
towards our society,
such as, his role in the oppressed
peasant Movement,
his role as
an Educationist etc. They may be due
for a future course of
discussion
;
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