Impact of minority educational institutions in India

                                               Although it is not exactly the same as caste based reservation, there are some schemes in our country for the welfare of minorities. Since it is also a form of positive discrimination, it is necessary to consider this to cover all the bases. The Constitution of India has articles exclusively dedicated for provisions ensuring the welfare of minorities. The fun part is when you realize that the term 'minority' has not been defined anywhere in the Constitution! Maybe, the creators of our Constitution left it to the discretion of the Courts. The Constitutional provisions regarding the welfare of minorities mainly come from the article 30 which says-

' (1) All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

 (1A) In making any law providing for the compulsory acquisition of any property of an educational institution established and administered by a minority, referred to in clause (1), the State shall ensure that the amount fixed by or determined under such law for the acquisition of such property is such as would not restrict or abrogate the right guaranteed under that clause.

 (2) The state shall not, in granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.'

Minority population in India
Picture Courtesy : hradvocates.blogspot.com

                                         There are mainly two types of minorities namely religious and linguistic. Obviously, we are interested in religious minorities. According to the central government, the major religious minorities are Christians,Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians(Jains).A minority educational institution refers to an institution established and administered by a minority having the right to do so under clause of article 30 of the Constitution.

Following conditions are laid down for grant of recognition to minority educational institution: 

• The aims and objectives of the educational agency incorporated in its bylaws should be clearly specified that it is meant to primarily serve the interests of the minority community to which it belongs.
• The minority educational institution shall not compel any of its religious activities.
• In all academic, administrative and financial matters rules and regulations laid down by respective statutory authorities from time to time shall be wholly applicable to these institutions.
• The minority educational institution shall observe general laws of the land relating to educational institutions.
• The minority educational institution shall appoint teachers as per qualifications laid down by the authority concerned but it will be advisable for them to select teachers and other employees through employment exchange or open advertisement.
• The minority educational institution shall charge the fees as prescribed by competent authority.
• The minority educational institution shall do nothing, which may come in the way of communal and social harmony.
• Fifty percent of seats permitted to be filled up from minority communities shall be equally distributed between free and payment seats.

                                              There are numerous educational institutions run by the minorities throughout the country. Some of them are among the best in their field of study. St Stephens College in New Delhi, Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore and Ludhiana, Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology in Hyderabad are a few of them. All these colleges are among the top in their respective fields. The minority educational institutions have contributed to not only the respective minority class but also the whole society. The aids provided by the government is a great encouragement for everyone to establish new educational institutions. This will definitely benefit the nation as a whole. From the table below (Data from the National Council for Minority Educational Institutions), it is observed that number of new minority educational institutions are increasing year by year. And, it cannot be a coincidence that the most number of new minority certified institutions comes from Kerala, which is a progressive and the most literate state in the country. And it is considerably larger than that of  bigger states like U.P. So, the impact of these institutions are not negligible.Well, it seems like a really good sign. But - I know I'm being skeptic here -  shouldn't there be a little something wrong? As usual, lets get all judgmental and see the pros and cons.

Table: Year-wise and state-wise details of minority status certificates issued 

Courtesy : http://ncmei.gov.in

• The minority educational institutions in India are the living proof of the glorious concept of secularism held up by the Constitution of India.
• Discrimination against minorities, if any, can be effectively refuted by the opportunities provided by these institutions.
• Whatever be the kind, educational institutions are always a valuable asset for the nation. There are numerous prestigious minority educational institutions in India in art, science, medical and engineering fields.
• The significance of Christian missionary schools in Kerala in attaining the universal literacy is indisputable.
• Again taking Kerala as an example, the western ideas of the Christian missionary institutions encouraged female education which played a sizable role against the conventional beliefs of gender inequality.
• Minority educational institutions are one of those few places where there is no reservation for the SCs, STs and OBCs.
• Encouragements from the government resulted in increase in number of institutions which created a lot of opportunities for higher education.

As every human being has a basic instinct to misuse anything and everything, we definitely have some facts like these :

• There are a lot of instances of the minority seats being traded for money by the management resulting in the misuse of government aids meant for minority welfare.
• These institutions have a potential to create and foster a communal atmosphere.
• Dominance of a specific group in an institution can increase social gap among communities.
• After all, the whole idea behind this is socially divisive and it is not a good practice in an aspiring secular and democratic nation like India.

                                      As always, this is also a good concept which ,unfortunately, has the potential to come back and bite us if handled carelessly. Implementation through proper channels can bring about the intended results. As in the case of caste, minority vote bank is something every politician has his eye on. These measures of positive discrimination has to be done efficiently and should be stopped in the near future once it becomes irrelevant.



References

1. Minority educational institutions: A critical analysis , CCS Working paper No. 154, http://www.ccs.in
2. http://ncmei.gov.in
3. http://www.indiankanoon.org
4. Ranu Jain,'Minority Rights in Education:Reflections on Article 30 of the Indian Constitution ', Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 40, No. 24 (Jun. 11-17, 2005), pp. 2430-2437.

Mandal Commission Report

                                      The name 'Mandal Commission' is almost synonymous to the caste based reservation in India. It actually laid the foundation stone of the present caste based reservation in India.  Even after 30 years of the establishment of the commission, it is still a popular topic of discussion.
The Mandal Commission was appointed in 1979 by the Janata Party government under the Prime Minister Morarji Desai , as per the mandate of the article 340 of the Constitution of India.

Article 340(1) says -

' The President may by order appoint a Commission consisting of such persons as he thinks fit to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes within the territory of India and the difficulties under which they labour and to make recommendations as to the steps that should be taken by the Union or any State to remove such difficulties and to improve their condition and as to the grants that should be made for the purpose by the Union or any State the conditions subject to which such grants should be made , and the order appointing such Commission shall define the procedure to be followed by the Commission'.

The commission headed by parliamentarian B P Mandal mainly had the following objectives :

• To determine the criteria for defining the socially and educationally backward classes.
• To recommend the steps to be taken for their advancement.
• To examine the desirability or otherwise for making any provision for reservation of appointments or posts for their favour.
• To present a report setting out the facts found by the commission.

The commission estimated the social backwardness in the country based on eleven social , economic and educational indicators.The indicators were :

Social indicators

1. Classes considered as socially backward  by others.
2. Classes which mainly depend on manual labour for their livelihood.
3. Classes where at least 25% females and 10% males above the state average get married at a n age below 17 in rural areas and at least 10% females and 5% males do so in urban areas.
4. Classes where female participation in work is at least 25% above the state average.

Educational indicators

1. Classes where the number of children in the age group of 5-15 years who have never attended school is at least 25% above the state average.
2. Classes where the rate of student drop-out in the age group of 5-15 years is at least 25% above the state average.
3. Classes amongst whom the proportion of matriculates is at least 25% below the state average.

Economic indicators

1. Classes where the average value of family assets is at least 25% below the state average.
2. Classes where number of families living in kuccha house is at least 25% above the state average.
3. Classes where the source of drinking water is beyond a half kilometer for more than 50% of the households.
4. Classes where then number of households having taken consumption loans is at least 25% above the state average.

                            Each of the social, educational and economic criteria were given a weightage of three,two and one points respectively. Any class which had at least 50% score ( i.e 11 points) were identified as backward classes.Based on this, the commission estimated that 52% ( excluding SC and ST ) of the total population belonging to 3473 castes are socially backward .This considerable fraction of the population is termed as Other Backward Classes or OBC. Based on the study, the commission put forth some recommendations in the report.

B P Mandal submitting the report to Home Minister Zail Singh in December 1980
Picture courtesy : www.frontline.in

Recommendations of Mandal commission report

• Reservation of SCs and STs are to be proportional to their population ( which is 22%).
• Since the Constitution restricts the reservation to be below 50% , OBCs get a reservation of 27% (Although OBCs constitute 52% of the population).
• Candidates belonging to OBC recruited based on an open competition should not be adjusted against their reservation quota of 27%.
• The above reservation should be applicable to promotion quota at all levels.
• Reserved quota remaining unfilled should be carried forward for a period of three years and de-reserved thereafter.
• Relaxation in the upper age limit for direct recruitment should be extended to the candidates of OBC in the same manner as done in the case of SC and STs.
• A roster system for each category of posts should be adopted by the concerned authorities in the same manner as presently done in respect of SC and ST candidates.
• These recommendations in total are applicable to all public sector undertakings both under the central and state governments , as also to nationalized banks.
• All private sector enterprises which have received financial assistance from the government  in one form or other should also be obliged to recruit personnel in the aforesaid basis.
• All universities and affiliated colleges should also be covered by the above scheme of reservation.
• To implement these recommendations, the government should create rules and regulations in the law.

Estimated percentage of class-wise population
Picture courtesy: www.wikipedia.org

Implementation of the recommendations

                     It is important to note that the commission suggested that the operations based on these recommendations should be implemented for 20 years. As we all know, some of the recommendations have not been implemented at all and those which were implemented are still operating three decades after the submission of the report. The report was submitted in both houses of the parliament on 30th April 1981. But, it was pushed under the carpet by the two successive Congress governments under the Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.This fact is a gentle reminder for us that the politics involved in the reservation issue is of utmost significance.

                                        The first attempt to implement the recommendations of the report was by the V P Singh government. On 7th August 1990, an order was issued for a partial implementation of the recommendations.This  resulted in awarding 27% reservation for OBC in the civil posts under central government, PSUs and FIs. This decision was met with violent protests and agitations.These protests generally known as the Mandal commission protests of 1990, were comparable to large national demonstrations of a labour union strike. These protests - not wide spread into the country - were mainly confined around Delhi. However, it got great media attention locally and nationally. The students of Delhi University were the majority among the anti-reservationists. The protests even included a series of self-immolations initiated by Rajiv Goswami , a student of Delhi University. The genuineness of the intentions of these protests have been questioned later referring to the involvement of political parties. This turnmoil finally resulted in the resignation of V P Singh as BJP withdrew their support.And,Congress came into power in the following elections.

Rajiv Goswami  during his attempt of self-immolation
Picture courtesy : www.outlookindia.com

                                  The implementation of reservation in educational institutions happened much later . Ever since its beginning, the Mandal commission report has been playing a major role in the history of caste based reservation in India. Here's a brief timeline of events related to the Mandal commission.

• January 1 1979  -  Prime minister Morarji Desai of Janata party government appoints the backward class commission with B P Mandal as the chairman.
• December 31 1980 - Mandal Commission submits its recommendations.
• August 13 1990  - Prime minister V P Singh 's order for awarding 27% reservation for OBC in the civil posts under central government, PSUs and FIs.
• November 16 1992 - The Constitutional bench of Supreme Court upholds that caste based   reservation of OBC is valid with the exclusion of 'Creamy Layer'.
• December 21 2005  - The UPA government passes the 104th Amendment bill ( 93rd Amendment Act), almost unanimously. A new clause 15(5) was inserted into the Constitution which allows the government to reserve seats for SCs, STs and OBCs in private unaided educational institutions.
• January 20 2006 - Article 15(5) of the Constitution (104th Amendment) came into force with presidential assent.
• 10th April 2008 - The Supreme court upheld the provision of 27% quota for candidates belonging to OBCs in IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and other premier educational institutions.

                                 The Mandal commission is undoubtedly a milestone in the history of independent India.The impact of its recommendations and the reservation system implemented in our country based on it is subjected to debate every now and then. It was based on a nearly scientific way of estimating the backward class in the country. And, it was definitely necessary for the upliftment of the discriminated backward classes in India.The report says -

'It may appear the upliftment of Other Backward Classes is part of the larger national problem of the removal of mass poverty. This is only partially correct. The deprivation of OBCs is a very special case of the larger national issue: here the basic question is that of social and educational backwardness and poverty is only a direct consequence of these two crippling caste-based handicaps. As these handicaps are embedded in our social structure, their removal will require far – reaching structural changes. No less important will be changes in the perception of the problems of OBCs by the ruling classes of the country'.

                             For what it's worth, it's recommendations definitely helped in formulating rules and regulations to ensure social justice via caste based reservation. Famous Indian human rights activist Balraj Puri asks in one of his articles - "If 43 years after independence, the share of the backward classes, who are estimated to be 52% of the population, in the government jobs has not exceeded by 4.5%, does the statutory measure to ensure their share in jobs to slightly more than half of their percentage in population amount to an undue favour to them? " It considerably improved the lives of a lot of Indians below the middle class. But at the same time, I can't help but notice that the whole idea behind this commission is based on a concept that is socially divisive. It brought back caste into our society as an identity. In our current Indian society, caste actually matters! And, the Mandal commission cannot afford to dodge the responsibility for that. The hands of reservations have reached new levels these days. The implementation of reservation in higher education based on the Mandal report is one of the many unfortunate consequences. Currently, 49.5% of the seats in the prestigious educational institutions in India are reserved for the backward classes. What makes this worse is the fact that a considerable number of these seats are unfilled and wasted every year. And, the benefits of these measures are mostly enjoyed by the economically sound ( or rather rich ) citizens of the "backward" class. Although the commission suggested reservation for just 20 years, our politicians are not going to kill this golden goose as long as the caste politics and vote bank politics have scope in India or ,in simple words, never !

References

1. http://www.wikipedia.org
2. http://obcreservation.net
3. http://www.indiankanoon.org
4. Balraj Puri, An ideological perspective on Mandal report, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 25, No. 42/43 (Oct. 20-27, 1990), pp. 2352-2353 .

Caste based reservation : A social justice?

                                 Caste based reservation in India is often highlighted as a scheme for ensuring social justice.The whole idea of social justice is so ambiguous and vague that its meaning varies from one individual to another. A widely accepted theory of social justice is the one theorized by renowned American philosopher John Rawls. In his book 'A theory of justice', Rawls says "Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust".The inevitability of social justice in our society is undisputed.However, it is hard to define what social justice actually means. In a broad sense, it refers to the equal treatment of all the citizens without any social distinction based on caste, colour, race, religion, sex and so on.

                           Although I do not intend to take his theory for granted, Rawls' theory is  reasonable and it serves well as a reference. According to the theory, the two basic principles of justice is as follows :

• Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others.

• Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both                                (a) reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage, and                                 (b) attached to positions and offices open to all.     

                                   All the basic rights are universally provided to the citizens based on the first principle. A just society ensures its every citizens the basic rights such as the right to vote, liberty of conscience and freedom of thought etc. All these are defined by the rule of law. What we are looking for is the implication of the second principle. In layman's tongue , it should be read like this- All social and economic inequalities in the society, if any, should make everyone's life better than how it was without it. The real killer here is the word 'reasonably' in the principle! Though it just made everything vague, we cannot blame Rawls for casually incorporating the word. Justice can be interpreted in infinitely many ways. Here, the question is 'What is reasonable ?' It is understandable that anything 'reasonable' in principle may not be reasonable for a considerable number of people. When it comes to reservation based on caste, the million dollar question is - ' Is it reasonable that someone belonging to the 'general' category is denied an opportunity just because he or she was not lucky enough to be 'socially backward' ?'.

                                       There is a famous quote from one of the popular Star Trek movies - 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few'. Although it sounds very virtuous, it is hard to digest for someone who belongs to the 'few' category. When it comes to social justice, Rawls clearly disagrees to this. He says- " Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests". So, the whole question of reservation being a social justice or not boils down to the basic question whether it is justice when we sacrifice the needs of a few for the greater good of the society.

                                         Before getting deep into this question, let's see what our Constitution  has to say. The preamble of the Constitution of India proudly proclaims -       " We, the people of India , ..........................................secure to all it's citizen
       JUSTICE social , economic and political ........................................
       EQUALITY of status and opportunity .................... ".
Also, article 16(1) states -
'There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State'.                                                                               At the same time, article 16(4) says -
'Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State'.

This contradictory nature of the Constitution basically comes from the classic conflict between justice and equality.The only choice left to us is to optimize between these two which is a Herculean task.

                               

                                        India, the second most populous country in the world, is a blend of  a wide variety of cultures and traditions.The social scenario at one part of the country is entirely different from that of another. Hence, its nearly impossible to come up with rules that are appropriate and fair to all. Reservation is one of those schemes that has been coming back and biting us ever since it was implemented. In India, the castes were categorized into general, SC, ST and OBC based on their social backwardness. Reservations were brought in to uplift the social and economic statuses of the backward classes who had been suppressed for long by the brutal caste system existed in India. It was morally and ethically inevitable to do so. And the condition of most of these backward classes has been improved considerably over the last 6 decades. But, a lot of citizens who belong to the upper castes have been denied job and educational opportunities because of this. At the same time, even less skilled or talented individuals from the 'backward' class are enjoying the opportunities just because his/her ancestors were discriminated. This cannot be justified by any means because this is undoubtedly an injustice to the eligible citizens of the upper castes. Moreover,there are plenty of 'backward' castes which has improved so much that they don't deserve reservations any more. In 'A theory of justice', Rawls says- "Those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of success regardless of their initial place in the social system, that is, irrespective of the income class into which they are born. In all sectors of society there should be roughly equal prospects of culture and achievement for everyone similarly motivated and endowed.The expectations of those with the same abilities and aspirations should not be affected by their social class". While we were using this argument for the well being of the socially backward, we completely forgot the innocent, eligible and probably economically backward upper caste citizens. Reservation, which was intended to ensure social justice , went overboard and brought in too much 'justice' which is now riding in the path of social injustice and inequality.

                                  That being said , we have to turn  the coin around and look at it from the other side too. It is necessary to check whether reservation has lost its all relevance ( as claimed by the anti-reservation agitators). Do we still need reservation to ensure social justice? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Nowadays, its a popular belief that caste-ism does not exist in India any more. There are many developed and literate states in India (for instance,Kerala ) where caste system and discrimination is almost completely overthrown. In those states, almost all people belonging to the 'backward' classes are misusing the opportunities provided by reservation even though they do not need to be 'uplifted' anymore. Most of them are socially and economically above the middle class and does not suffer any kind of discrimination except the undeserved positive discrimination of reservation. Nevertheless, the scenario is completely different in many other parts of India. There are societies in India where the backward castes are subjected to extreme discrimination involving customs as primitive as untouchability and unapproachability! It is really hard for an educated Indian to believe that such customs still exists in our 'Incredible India' ! Here is an eye-opening documentary video on the existence of caste discrimination in various parts of India.

                               The heights of caste discrimination existing in India even in this 21st century is unbelievable! Those communities definitely need encouragement from the government for their well being. There is discrimination against them at work places, public places and -the most atrocious of all -  even at schools ! This is a shameful truth that every proud Indian should always remember.While protesting against the government to stop caste based reservation, most of the middle class  educated Indians have no idea about this bitter truth. And , hence I rest my case by contradicting myself that reservation is necessary in current Indian society to ensure social justice.

                                       Well, apparently we are trapped between a rock and a hard place! And it is a known fact that there is no way out. The best choice we have is to stay in between in such a way that the agony is minimized. But, unfortunately there are many other constraints too. The politicians taking advantage of this situation are not making it easier for us to resolve the issue. Division and inequality in society has always been feeding the greedy and corrupt politicians. In order to make the best out of the situation, the constitutional provisions for reservation have to be studied extensively and revised to accommodate for the changes occurred in Indian society. Moreover, castes which have been improved for the past 60 years have to be removed from the category. Since the opportunities and resources are limited, it is important to make sure that the incentives from the government should reach the right deserving hands. A priority list should be made after detailed researches so that regions with different levels of discrimination are treated appropriately. Apart from reservation, awareness program-mes should be organised at grassroots to wipe out the nasty social practice of discrimination. Only the collective efforts from the people and government can bring equality in our society. We have to carry the burden of reservation until that happens.
                               
                                    Reservation based on caste , as a concept , is definitely a method to ensure social justice. But, its inefficient implementation in Indian society resulted in social injustice and inequality.What we lack is an effective and productive algorithm to lead ourselves to a society where equality goes hand in hand with justice. It's just a matter of time if we choose the right path. Coming back to our basic question , I do believe that it is fairly reasonable to sacrifice the needs of a few for the greater good of the society (maybe because I never had to sacrifice), provided we make sure that those sacrifices always result in the greater good of the deserving people. At the same time, I do believe that reservation is totally unjust to the upper caste citizens. But, it is a price, we - the whole society, has to pay for the improvement of our fellow beings. After all , as Oscar Wilde once told, life is never fair, perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not!

This should be our vision - Equality and justice !
Picture courtesy : www.memecenter.com

References

1. Rawls, John (1971) : 'A theory of justice' , Harvard University Press.
2. http://www.indiankanoon.org
3. http://en.wikipedia.org
4. https://www.youtube.com