Future of caste based reservation policy
In future caste based enumeration of Indian population would become a regular exercise and with use of IT and better methods the data would be easy to gather and analyze. How will this affect the caste based reservation policy? Eventually , many castes that currently hold the OBC status might be found to be better represented and would have to be excluded from the OBC list. The most numerous of the forwards among OBCs would be affected. Say, if Yadavas in UP and Bihar are found to be heavily represented and no longer fit the OBC criteria they would have to be excluded from the OBC list. Similarly many other power groups among OBCs would be affected in many other states. This will have dramatic affect on the OBC politics. Suddenly Lalu, Mulayam and Sharad Yadav will become leaders of General category/Forward castes. Are OBC leaders initiating something that will eventually ruin them? RTI is there and government can no longer hide the stats. We know that under Mulayam and Lalu most selected in government jobs in UP were Yadavas. There is a possibility that they are now over represented or may would be in near future. The caste based enumeration would be a welcome step if done in totality. Don't know but would be interesting to see the result.
I am neither supporting caste based census nor opposing it here on this forum. If caste based data becomes available and this exercise becomes a norm then that will have a profound effect on the reservation policy. I mentioned Yadavas as an example (case study) and as a benchmark trend. It is no secret that forwards among the backwards take the maximum benefits under the current policy. And after RTI the government is bound to become more transparent with respect to the data. It is possible that 10 years down the line ( if already not happened) , many forwards among OBCs would come out to be over represented than their actual proportion in the population. Say Yadavas in UP amount to 12% of the state's population but their representation in government jobs in the last 2 decades has gone up to 14%.This will qualify Yadava's to be FC rather than OBC and they will be out of the OBC category by the order of some court ( may be SC).This way i guess once the data becomes available the forwards among the OBCs would be seriously affected losing out on the benefits of reservation.
Caste-based reservation should be totally done away with if India has to move forward so I don't think there is much of a point in discussing the future of this policy which is ruining the present as well as future of the whole country.
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