I would like to write an article on Affirmative Action in India.
According to a Google search:
Affirmative action is a policy initiative in which a person’s nationality, sex, religion, and caste are taken into account by a company or a government organisation to extend employment or education opportunities.
(Sourced from – https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/affirmative-action )
I come from a community where affirmative action is a sore point. We are brahmins, well educated, competent and (relatively speaking) idealistic. Making money through bribes is not the reason we want government jobs. Service to the nation and the respect of society is important to us.
Because of affirmative action the jobs that were available to us – almost by right – were made available to other communities. And the results are there for everyone to see. Nobody will say today that India is well governed or administered.
There are many reasons why affirmative action is beneficial (to at least some sections of society). There are many academic studies and a lot of thought has gone into researching the subject. But does the nation as whole benefit.
I read the book, The Difficulty of being Good by Gurcharan Das, which explores the subject of affirmative action in depth. If you are interested, please read this book. It is interesting, well written and entertaining.
I will make only one point that I think is relevant:
Will you allow a blind man to drive a car or fly an airplane?
You will not – right? You may feel sorry for the blind man, you (or your ancestors) may even have caused his blindness but you will still not allow him to drive a car or pilot a plane.
But due to votebank politics all political parties in India have accepted affirmative action and reservation of jobs is now the norm.
So what is to be done in this situation?
I would suggest that job reservation should be kept on hold in sensitive and critically important sectors. These sectors are – according to me – those involving national security and law and order.
The great philosopher, Bertrand Russell, wrote that the primary function of a state is to serve as protection against internal criminals and external enemies. And these are the sectors that I would exclude from reservation.
Perhaps another critically important sector is education. But here I am not sure.
In this way even if the man driving the car is blind, he will not cause the system or the country to collapse. The state will be able to discharge its primary functions listed above.
One related article that I published earlier is linked to below. Take a look:
I’ll end here. Please share this article on WA, FB and Twitter and let me have your comments. Feedback from my readers keeps me going.
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