Inequality in equality
By Kevin Pau
I’m not sure how many of you are still licking those wounds or whether you have moved on to plucking sour grapes, either way don’t give up its not the end of the road. The need to secure a ‘solkal sepna’ is not your fault rather you are victim of a society that has been bombarded with a sense of achievement attainable only by following a certain path.
The societies of BIMARU states and Northeast India have ingrained themselves since childhood with the goal of becoming a civil servant or a government employee and no form of achievement mattered beyond the pay matrix of a government service. Regrettably our misfortune has us at odds with the most populated and fiercely competitive states in the country. The lack of development in the cow-belt region has made them hungry for success and voraciously dedicated to a single cause. The heat and crime don’t seem to deter their ambition, thus the slogan ‘make it big or go home’.
The stars and the numbers are not in our favour anymore and the advantage we once had in early anglo-education is slowing closing in. The injustice of reservation politics it seems has finally piqued our interest and we can’t deny the need to closely examine the underlying issues.
“Aap chronology samajh lijiye”
The pre-independence act ‘Government of India Act of 1909’ sow the seed for reservation in India. After Independence the constitution came up with Art.15(4) and Art.46 to protect the interest of the ST and SC in the matter of reservation in employment, education and public office. Then came the Mandal Commission in 1979 which intend to further expand the basket of reservation for OBC, it was met with much protest but was later implemented in the year 1990 during the prime ministership of VP Singh. Later in the year 2019 came the 103rd CAA with 10% reservation for the EWS of the general categories, also implemented with safety rider to target intended categories. Thereby pushing the limit of reservation balloon above 50% as decreed by the Supreme Court in 1993.
Debate for Creamy Layer for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
Article 16 of the Indian Constitution “Equality in matters of public employment” is evolving with regards to inclusion of more ST in the list while retaining the same reserved quota of 7.5% in the overall distribution. This policy has created a quagmire where new additions to the list have to compete with existing tribes whose social and economic prospect has improved. This flawed concept is ignored time and again for the sake of electoral appeasement.
To percolate equality of benefits to all sections of the intended reserved categories, lawmakers have put in checks and balances for the OBC and EWS category in the form of creamy layer concept and income and assets slabs, while no such mechanism exist for ST’s and SC’s.
The creamy layer test was first mentioned in’ Indra Sawhney vs Union of India case of 1992’ by the Supreme Court, observing that “some members of a backward class who are socially, economically as well as educationally advanced as compared to the rest of the members of that community”, to further strengthen the cause of creamy layer concept for SC and ST, the Supreme Court has given its verdict in 2006 in M. Nagaraj Case but left the decision to implement it to the parliament. The verdict comes at the backdrop of a comment made by the apex court “if only the creamy layer within that class bag all the coveted jobs in the public sector and perpetuate themselves, leaving the rest of the class as backward as they always were”
However it can be seen that the creamy layer for SC and ST will not be implemented in the near future as suggested by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad last December, "we are of the view that is no need for a creamy layer for the SC and ST (communities)".
Scheduled Tribe and Distributive Injustice
The following raw data has been collected from various open sources and discretion may be reserved since it may not paint a comprehensive picture rather it has been compiled to highlight the broad outline of regional growth disparities between one region of a country against one tribe.
Percentage of ST in a state against the whole population of tribal population in the country
Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Orissa Rajasthan Gujarat Whole of NE India
14.7% 10.1% 9.2% 8.8% 8.5% 12%
Literacy rate of Schedule Tribes State wise (Census 2011)
Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Orissa Rajasthan Gujarat Avg. of all 8NE States
50.6% 65.7% 55.2% 52.8% 62.5% 77.3%
ST percentage in a state against the whole population of the state
Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Orissa Rajasthan Gujarat
21% 9.4% 22.8% 13.5% 14.8%
ST percentage in a state against the whole population of the state
Mizoram Manipur Assam Meghalaya Nagaland
94.4% 40.9% 12.4% 86.1% 86.5%
Let us analyze some empirical data to scrutinize the disconnection between Population and Reservation. It can be seen that one single tribe can outperformed 8 states combined together at the highest level of government service examination.
No.of selected Meena ST in UPSC CSE for the last 5 years Population Distrib. Rajasthan
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Total Total Tribal Pop. of Rajasthan 9,238,534
30 31 27 31 23 142 Total Meena Pop. of Rajasthan 3,799,971
Successful candidates in UPSC CSE for NE India including all Category for the last 5 years Population Distribution in NE India
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Total Whole Pop. of NE India 45,772,188
15 24 18 16 10 83 ST Pop. of NE India 12, 679,736
We can see in the above data that literacy rate and population size don’t have any correlation. Now, to solidify our findings we can do more soul searching by examining the result of the second most demanding government service examination i.e combined graduate examination (CGL) conducted by Staff Selection Commission (SSC). The data below displayed selected candidates in various posts and do not include the post of JSO, AAO and interview post.
There are nine (9) SSC Exam centers in Rajasthan and the data below is only for one (1) exam center and one tribe i.e Meena/Mina.
Successful candidates in SSC CGL Year wise from exam center 2405 (Jaipur) of Meena ST only
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total
196 295 161 366 197 1215
There are twelve (12) SSC Exam center in Northeast India (excluding Gangtok center code 4001) and the data below is for all the exam centers and all candidates.
Successful Candidates in SSC CGL Year wise from all exam centers in NE India (except Sikkim) including all categories(ST+SC+OBC+UR)
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total
28 67 23 35 57 210
Imphal (Center Code 5501) all categories
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total
4 16 3 3 9 35
CCpur (Center Code 5502) all categories
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total
2 10 2 0 7 21
We can conclude from the above data that one single tribe in the country is enjoying the biggest share of the pie meant for equitable distribution across the country. The given data is not a barometer to gauge neither the capacity of the students of Northeast India nor the quality of education, rather the stark difference in access to pool of resources limited by geographical isolation.
Why the disconnection?
The distance between Jaipur to New Delhi is 260 Km and from Guwahati to New Delhi is 1911.5 Km. We can infer that any tribe inhabiting the state of Rajasthan have easy access to the capital in a matter of hours. The resources available at the country’s capital for clearing any entrance or employment examination cannot be surpassed by other cities in the country. The states of north India are well connected by paved highways and affordable public transport while the same cannot be said for the Northeast. Unfortunately meanwhile the native youth of northeast busied themselves with academic pursuit their situation is endangered by the incessant activities of illegal migrants squatting their land and resources. The icing on the cake in a series of injustice is Kota in Rajasthan-conveniently located at the tribal belt and is the country’s industrial hub for coaching in engineering and medical entrance exam.
The curious case of the Meena Tribe
Various media have reported that the inclusion of Meena in the ST list was reserved for the western dwelling Bhil(s) of Rajasthan, who also identify themselves as Bhil Meena and practice animatisms, while the eastern dwelling Meena are practitioner of Hinduism and a dominant caste in the same group as the OBC Gurjjars/Gujjars. The story goes that an inclusion of a comma in the gazette notification has clubbed them together with the other non tribal meena, the notification was to read Bhil Meena but published as Bhil, Meena. Thereby opening a legal loophole with ambiguous interpretations. Today, all is not well for the Meenas either, they are in a tug of war with the Gujjars for the inclusion of the latter in the ST list, which will then compromise their share and dominance.
The power of a comma cannot be understated from thereafter and yet a funny story might well be brewing in our neighborhood, if the wishes of the STDCM are to come true, reservation among the speaker of Meetei/Meitei dialect in Manipur will look like this-Meitei (Obc), Meitei (Pangal) , Meitei (SC), Meitei (General) and Meitei (ST), we can only hope things will not become a Moirang Singzu.
The need for Reservation within Reservation
We send our children to school to receive education and later build a career in their life. But what if there is nothing for them after 15 years of formal education? It then defeats the commitments extend to time and money. The need for positive discrimination becomes invalid if it ameliorates the situation of only a section of the intended beneficiaries.
The geographical isolation, lack of opportunity and financial challenges faced by different categories of communities residing in the northeast is a case in point to launch a special purpose reservation vehicle to uplift the whole region on par with the nation. It will be easier said than done, the total number of Lok Sabha MP in the region stands toe to toe with the number of LS MP’s in Rajasthan.
The issue is bigger than a person or a party, and to advocate for regional development our politicians needs to rise above individualism and remain united to the cause cutting across party lines. Our elected representative should take note of the matter in hand and voiced the issue at appropriate forum before it can become a bone of contention.
Sources:
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_in_India
2) https://vikaspedia.in/social-welfare/scheduled-tribes-welfare/scheduled-tribes-in-india
3) https://tribal.nic.in/writereaddata/AnnualReport/AnnualReport2016-17.pdf
4) https://scroll.in/article/952687/why-the-supreme-courts-verdict-on-sc-st-quotas-has-created-a-political-storm
5) https://www.livemint.com/news/india/no-need-to-determine-creamy-layer-for-sc-st-ravi-shankar-prasad-11575998137868.html
6) https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/why-does-government-wants-supreme-court-to-reconsider-stand-on-scst-creamy-layer/article30233041.ece
7) http://www.rajcensus.gov.in/PCA_2011_FINAL_DATA/PCA_chapter_2.pdf
8) https://censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/SCST/dh_st_rajasthan.pdf
9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_India
10) https://tribal.nic.in/ST/Tribal%20Profile.pdf
11) https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/how-meenas-got-st-status/articleshow/2087874.cms?from=mdr
12) FR-CSE-2019-040820-ENG.pdf
13) https://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/FR-CSME-2018-Engl.pdf
14) https://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/FR-CSM-17.pdf
15) https://www.insightsonindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/UPSC-2016-final-result.pdf
16) https://www.civilserviceindia.com/FN_CSM_2015.pdf
17) https://www.sscadda.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/LIST_3_Others_15112019.pdf
18) http://164.100.78.55/sscwebsitepdf/english/results_pdf/ROLL_L2_05082017.pdf
19) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Vco53IiVTNWTMzZVc4MEJzTGs/view
20) http://164.100.78.55/sscwebsitepdf/english/results_pdf/ROLL-L1.pdf
21) http://media.careerlauncher.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ssc/ROL_L3_12_03_2015_revised.pdf