“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”These lines of Pandit Nehru marked beginning of the journey towards “India” that was envisioned by the souls that fought for its independence and promised to fix the deep cracks of inequality in our society.
It was decided that the best way to uplift the Scheduled Castes (SC), the Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) was to give them a guaranteed seat at the table, specifically, in government jobs and colleges. This system was designed to assist those who had been marginalised for centuries and to rectify historical injustices. But today, the world has changed, and our old solutions are no longer enough. We need to face a hard truth and if we want true equality, we must talk about the private sector.
The Shift inthe‘Job Market’
The biggest reason that made us rethink about extending the ambit ofreservations, is that the jobs have moved. Where the government was the main employer a few years ago, but that is no longer the case in present-day India.
The numbers show a clear picture. Employment in the public sector has stagnated, hovering around 176 lakh jobs. Meanwhile, the private sector is booming. Jobs there went up from 88 lakhs to over 1.2 crores[1]. This means the “pie” of government jobs is shrinking or staying the same, while the private sector is getting bigger and bigger.
If the reservation only applies to government jobs, we are fighting for fairness in a shrinking corner of the economy, while the vast majority of new opportunities remain closed off to millions based on their social background.
The Myth of “Merit”
A common argument against reservation in private companies is that they care only about “merit” and skill. Businesses often say that if they are forced to hire based on caste, their quality will drop. But is the private sector truly hiring only based on talent is the question.
Various studies have showcased that there is active discrimination against marginalized groups. In one revealing experiment, identical resumes were sent to companies and the only difference was the name on the paper. The results were shocking! applicants with SC/ST names received 33% fewer callbacks than those with upper-caste names, even though their qualifications were exactly the same[2]. This shows it isn’t about skill; it is about bias.
Furthermore, if we glance at the top of the corporate ladder, the inequality is glaring. A study from 2010 showed that nearly 93% of corporate board members in India belong to privileged castes[3]. In contrast, SC and ST members make up only about 3.5% of these powerful positions. When the leadership of our economy is so one-sided, it creates a club where outsiders are not welcome.
Does Reservation Hurt Growth in Reality?
There is a constant sense of fear that bringing reservations into private business will ruin the economy. And the reason that efficiency will suffer. However, there are real-life examples that prove this fear is unfounded.
Let’s just look at the state of Tamil Nadu. This state has a massive 69% reservation policy for SC, ST, and OBC groups. If reservation killed growth, Tamil Nadu should be struggling. Instead, it is one of the best performing states in India, with the second-largest economy and high human development numbers. It is growing at a rate of 10-12% every year[4].
In fact, studies from global organisations like the OECD suggest that inequality is what actually hurts economic growth[5]. When the bottom 40% of the population is deprived of good jobs and wealth creation opportunities, the whole country suffers. To grow properly, everyone needs a fair shot.
The Global Standards
It is also strange that Indian companies are so resistant to diversity when global companies embrace it. In the United States of America, multinational corporation giants like Microsoft and Amazon actively try to hire people from different races and backgrounds. They publish reports showing how many women and minorities they hire because they know a diverse workforce is good for business[6].
In Germany, the government has mandated quotas for women on company boards to ensure they are represented. If the biggest economies in the world are using affirmative action to fix inequality in the private sector, why is India lagging behind? In India, talking about caste in the corporate world is treated as a taboo, but keeping quiet only hides the problem and makes it even worse.
A Smarter Way Forward: Ensuring Inclusion
So, how do we fix this? We don’t need to force companies to hire specific numbers using a “quota” system that scares business owners. We don’t want a “License Raj” where inspectors harass companies.
There is a smarter, more constructive way for the inclusion of these marginalised sections by introducing a “Diversity Score” system. Every company with more than a certain number of employees (for eg:20) would report the diversity of their staff in gender, caste, and religion. Based on who they hire, they get a score. For example, hiring a Dalit woman from a rural village would give a company more points than hiring a privileged man from a city, because the woman faces more disadvantages.
The government can then use these scores to give rewards. Companies with high diversity scores could get tax breaks or incentives. The government could even say that if you want a government contract or subsidy, you must have a decent diversity score. This encourages companies to change willingly rather than punishing them.
Conclusion
It is unfortunate that the accident of birth still decides too much about a person’s life in India. Majority of the people from marginalised groups are stuck in low-paying casual jobs, while upper castes hold the secure&well-paid regular jobs.
We cannot wait for the “trickle-down” effect to fix this. The private sector is where the jobs are, and it is where the money is. If we leave it unregulated, it will remain a gated community for the privileged. By introducing affirmative action in the private sector, not through force, but through smart incentives and transparency, we can finally start to fulfil the promise of our Constitution.
[1]Government of India, Economic Survey 2016-17; Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI), Key Indicators of Employment and Unemployment in India.
[2]Sukhadeo Thorat and Paul Attewell, The Legacy of Social Exclusion: A Correspondence Study of Job Discrimination in India, Economic and Political Weekly (2007) (referencing research on caste discrimination in the Indian private sector).
[3]D. Ajit, Han Donker, and Ravi Saxena, Corporate Boards in India: Blocked by Caste?, Economic and Political Weekly (2012) (referencing “The Casteist Underbelly of the Indian Private Sector”)
[4]Economic Survey 2016-17
[5]OECD, Does Income Inequality Hurt Economic Growth?, OECD.org (2014).
[6]Microsoft, Global Diversity & Inclusion Report: Come as You Are, Do What You Love; Amazon, Our Workforce Data.
Author Name- This is Nandeesha V Kariholia II Year LL.B. student at GurusiddappaKotambri Law College, Hubballi (affiliated with Karnataka State Law University).
