Reservation of Jobs for Marginalised Women in Private Sector A Means of Empowerment Not the End

A Paper

National Seminar “Reservation of Jobs in Private Sector: Prospects and Modalities”

August 4-5, 2005 organised by

Dr. A. Babasaheb Ambedkar National Institute

of Social Sciences, Mhow M.P.

by Dr. Mrs. Janak McGilligan

India’s major challenge is to include all sections of its population in the process of growth and development by giving equal access to opportunities regardless of their class, caste, language, region, community, gender and physical or mental handicap. This challenge is seen by any modern nation across the globe, and across ideological barriers, as an indispensable duty of government. Women are the most marginalized. Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women are the most marginalized of all the marginalized sections of society who have been excluded from access to opportunities for further growth.

At the outset, the main purpose of the reservation policy was to ensure social and economic justice thereby realizing the goal of the empowerment of the dalits and tribals.[1] It can address certain social inequalities that have pervaded Indian society for so long. These social inequalities leave the so-called low castes deprived in everything from education to economy.[2] Thus, the policy of job reservations intends to bring about proportional representation, as it is a mode of distributing benefits based on the proportion of population, i.e. 15 percent for the scheduled castes (SCs) and 7.5 percent for scheduled tribes (STs). [3]

Thanks to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s instrumental role in the making of the Constitution, the governments are bound to implement them on the basis of the principle of distributive justice and compensation for past disadvantages.[4] But that was confined to only the public sector that had been shrinking over a period of time [5]. At a time when the number of educated among these unprivileged classes is increasing in geometrical progression, their share of jobs in the public sector is dwindling on end.[6] This is more so since the last decade and half, all in the name of so-called globalisation and till date.[7]

This is a long-awaited measure and of course welcomed by all sections of society. Obviously, even a section of the business class is willing to implement it, however difficult it may appear to be as far as its feasibility is concerned. There are certain apprehensions expressed by several persons cutting across all castes and communities because the very security of private jobs is at the mercy of the management and the government does not have any role in protecting the private employee. Since the government plays or intends to play the role of best spectator in the operations of the private sector, private job aspirants, be they from the general category or from others, have to be merely dependent on none other than themselves!
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It is well-known fact that the Indian private sector takes maximum advantages in the form of money from public sector banks and financial institutions, exemptions and acquiring lands licenses, quotas and whatever they need from government. The private sector is also known for maximum default in repayment of loans and taxes. They have given minimum to those scheduled castes and scheduled tribes whose cost they have built their infrastructures and capital. This can be seen from patterns of employment of the private sector that they have neglected

the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in general and the women in particular. One of the factors contributing to it is the rural tribal and scheduled castes and backward castes, particularly the females, are not able to fill their quotas because they are not qualified to fill these posts. It is because of a fractured system of school education that serves the poorer and disempowered sections of the society and remains inefficient to reach out effectively and provide meaningful education that could enable them to enter the private sector. Another factor is that the private sector had no obligation due to lack of any legislative binding like reservation.

In order to achieve gender equality and social justice that India has signed in the Millenium Development Goals, I advocate reservation for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women in the private sector with the following policy recommendations;

  1. Reservation should be the tool of empowerment, only a “means”, not an end
  2. The private sector should make it a priority to invest in promoting their quality education and the skills needed to cater to the private sector like army schools have been preparing people to serve in the army. Once this training is imparted right from the beginning, there will be no question of sacrificing the quality or merit.

I have worked for more than 20 years with illiterate young tribal and rural girls and women from 400 villages in training them as human resources. And I have seen amazing results that are available in the form of research. I can guarantee that they have better potentials of performance, capability, sense of responsibility and understanding than men. All they need is equal access to opportunities and education. Any financial resources systematically invested in them will bring far more gains to the private sector, provided the intentions are pure and they have a serious commitment to make India a developed nation as envisaged by our honorable president Dr. Abdul Kalam.

Dr. (Mrs). Janak P.McGilligan
Director
Barli Development Institute For Rural women
180 Bhamori,New Dewas Road,
Indore-452010-M.P. (India)
Tel-091-731-2554066
/

1 .By Dr. K. Vidyasagar Reddy Reservations In Private Sector:
Not A Charity, But A Social Necessity

11 August, 2005
Countercurrents.org

Millenium Development Goals

entrepreneurial class can definitely seek some modicum of equality in job distribution.

Not to Create a dependency Syndrome.

measure

On the basis of my 20 years of Experience at Barli Institute of working with this

Once they are provided best quality education and training, they have the capacity to acquire higher position in the industry as in the US.

I would advocate the private sector to make liberal financial investment in for quality training to uplift the status and merit in higher education and training to help them compete with others and definitely get jobs in the private sector, but purely on the basis of merit and not through reservations.

Investment of human energy and material resources in education We have a very large army of scientifically trained manpower, we also have, perhaps, the largest number of illiterates. As many scholars have pointed out, we seem to be unwittingly nurturing

The challenge is to invest more energy and resources to improve the system, both in its outreach capacity and quality. We have to act on this with a sense of urgency and earnestness, lest education itself becomes a means of promoting social inequality and a source of increasing chasm between those who can pay for their education and those who cannot.

It is not enough to merely proliferate input-oriented pro- grammes. It is necessary to strategise actions so as to make real improvement in the lives of the people.

Merit is also being sacriced in private Educational Institutions in the name of NRI etc

Not to Create a dependency Syndrome

Reservations were originally intended to be a temporary measure; something to

have in place while the government tried to provide education to the so-called

backward castes and get them to equal societal and economic status. That they

continue to exist only points to the utter failure of the government to do so in

the last 55 years since we became independent. political weapon

The role of tribal communities, especially tribal women, in protecting and conserving the country’s rich biodiversity and natural resources, its culture and civilization has been clearly amplified. Dalit women represent the most oppressed section of our society, and they face multiple forms of discrimination based on caste, religion, patriarchic ideology and obscurantist practices.

The Declaration recognizes the status of women and seeks to empower them. The recognition of SC/ST women as a distinct category in census, planning, development programmes, market enterprises, financial allocations, employment, and health facilities is essential for the all round development of Dalit women who are burdened by both gender and caste. The atrocities that are perpetrated on the Dalit women are to be dealt sternly. The National and State Commissions of Women should report in their annual reports on the status of SC and ST women. Unfortunately, the National Policy on Women does not yet recognize the SC and ST women as

The concept and ideals of a civil society are enshrined in the

Constitution of India framed by Dr. Ambedkar, whose preamble declares the

commitment of the Indian State to justice, liberty, equality and

fraternity.

The Bhopal Declaration is a unique charter enshrining the aspirations,

objectives and expectations of the 250 million Scheduled Castes and

Scheduled Tribes of the country and it is the road map for their

socio-economic development. a distinct category.

Not sacrificing the quality and merit

The discussion on reservation in the Indian private sector began in the 1950s but not one entrepreneur volunteered to ensure workplace diversity. Even in the US, companies like General Motors and Ford have systems in place to employ African Americans, Asians and so on. There, every company that produces material procured by the government has to have workplace diversity. In the public sector, this social responsibility was partly discharged through job reservations. The technical efficiency in the case of the public sector was also coupled with allocative efficiency in terms of social justice. Even so, they were able to compete globally as can be seen from the performance of public sector corporations like Bhel, ONGC, NTPC, IOC and so on.

industrial enterprises from the government and industrialists instead of creating a “A.K. SHARMA, Chandigarh dependency syndrome” among them and perpetuate it further

In India we don’t have reservation in private sector but in America it is provisioned for Blacks. There it is said that a certain percentage will have to be reserved for them in private sector. Take a look at America’s constitution and see how they have done it for Blacks.

We are also a democratic nation then why to have reservation only in to be really effective in uplifting the poor and downtrodden , should be confined to one generation eg, a doctor couple's progeny should not be eligible under the quota. similarly,

rese...public sector. But in the private sector, there is no such constitutional compulsion and the land and labour are utilised to make an entrepreneur richer with no guarantee that the tribal who owns the land or the dalit whose labour went into the mining process would get a share through a job in the company. It is almost like someone asking you to get out of your house so that they can dig for gold while you are being made to beg outside what was once your own house.

Fair competition in a mixed economy means that the public sector and the private sector should have a level playing field. When the public sector is being asked to discharge its social commitment through the reservation of jobs, there is no reason why similar conditions should not apply to the private sector that has been given a lot of concessions to enhance industrial growth.

Everybody knows that our private sector takes a lot of money from public sector banks and financial institutions, and there is a huge default in loan repayment and taxes. Those whose land, labour and capital are being used by the Indian entrepreneurial class can definitely seek some modicum of equality in job distribution.

Under the circumstances, to call upon only the public sector and government departments to discharge their social commitment, keeping the private sector insulated from the national goal of evolving social justice, would be contrary to one of the basic principles of governance in the country - to provide full equality of opportunity in employment for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward castes.

The Indian private sector should try to understand this basic idea behind the concept of social justice so that the partnership in entrepreneurship that it is clamouring for is matched by its action in partnering the objective of social justice, too.

The president’s address showing govt’s sensitivity to affirmative action on reservation in the private sector - through dialogue with political parties, industries and other bodies on how best the private sector can fulfill the aspiration of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes - is, therefore, a step in right direction and the private sector should offer its cooperation in a positive manner.

(Courtesy: Business Standard, June 16, 2004

NCDHR:The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) is part of a wider struggle to abolish "untouchability" and to "cast out caste". "Untouchability" and caste discrimination continue to be a brutal reality for more than 160 million Dalits living in India today, despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since India was born as a "democratic" and independent state.1995
Dalits in private sector will make India stronger
by Udit Raj
The United Progressive Alliance Government was able to muster the support of dalits by promising them reservation in private sector, filling up backlog posts, distribution of land etc. However, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar has happily welcomed the denial of reservation by top industrialists such as Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, Kumarmangalam Birla, Anu Aga, Rafik Jakaria etc.
The captains of industry have extended their support to the uplift of dalits through training and education in private schools. But the expenditure on this will be much more than what they would have spent on dalits by providing them employment and remuneration. Clearly, the industrialists do not want to shoulder any responsibility.
Some intellectuals, industrialists and a section of the middle class argue that reservation in private sector will adversely affect production and efficiency. In the post-independence era, what development has the private sector done to compete at the international level? Our industrialists have not made a single international brand so far compared with their counterparts in developed countries.
There is no reservation but they are still lagging behind. Of over 100 crore population, we could not get a single gold medal in the Olympics though there is no reservation in sports. If some corporate houses are doing well, it is for personal benefit. Our professionals, technocrats and bureaucrats always angle for foreign training. But why have we not developed like those in the West? Indian industries themselves are product of a sort of reservation like adopting foreign technology, office establishment and what not.
When the annual profit and loss of a company is declared, industrialists in the US first make it a point to declare the representation given to Afro-Americans, Red Indians and Hispanics. Till date which Indian industrialist has shouldered this kind of social responsibility? When our government and industrialists follow the American industries as their role model, why cannot they follow their social ideals and obligations?
Interestingly, during a study tour to California last year, I found that when the Municipal Corporation, county etc., award contracts, they impose conditions on businessmen to buy materials from weaker sections such as Negroes, Hispanics and Red Indians according to their population ratio. The Delhi Government is building a flyover in Dhaula Kuan. The contract worth Rs 1,000 crore is given to a private company which has to buy 25 per cent of raw materials from dalits. By this way, in the Rs 1,000-crore business transaction, Rs 250-crore worth business will go to dalits. In no way it will hamper efficiency and production. This will enable dalits to have a say in the country’s development.
Non-whites such as Oprah Winfrey and Alfonse Fleture are among the top industrialists in the United States. But not a single dalit has reached this position in India. At present, 75 CEOs and most powerful blacks (See Black Enterprise, February 2005) are ruling the roost in US corporate houses. However, not a single dalit occupies such a position in India.
Sometime back, the West and the US were role models for Indian industries, but now it is China. If the same mindset continues, some underdeveloped nations would become new role models for us in the future because China will have left us far behind. Asking for reservation in private sector is synonymous to participation without compromising merit.
The country, which faces internal contradiction, would never progress. In the 60s and 70s, America witnessed bloody battles between Negroes and Whites but the problem has been successfully tackled by integrating them in various fields. Without this, the US could not have progressed and become a super power. Today Negroes are the pride of the US in music, games, industries etc. India’s dalits have been waiting for such opportunities. But who will let them in?