Why would you want to change the Affirmative Action Against Social Discrimination program to be based on irrelevant factors like income?
Everyone knows that it is not a poverty alleviation program. Poverty alleviation programs such as MNREGA, PDS, MDM, Public schooling, Free hospitals are not based on caste. They are based on your poverty levels.
Reservation is protection against caste based discrimination in society.
Take for example, women in Germany - they are neither poor nor illiterate. Yet their country gives them gender based quotas in board members of private companies.
Source: Germany passes gender quota legislation for the boardroom
Affirmative action programs are always based on cause of discrimination. In Germany it was gender. So the affirmative action program is also based on gender, not economic condition.
If it is race, we will have racial quotas and so on.
In India the cause of discrimination is caste. So Indian affirmative action program is also based on caste. (We too, have gender discrimination. So we should also have gender quotas.)
Now, trying to solve the problem of caste based discrimination with income based program is like barking up the wrong tree.
There is absolutely no reason to do that.
If you want to solve the problem of economic exclusion, you should do it by the following methods.
a) High quality free public schooling - this is to counter the difference between private schooling that the poor cannot afford.
b) Scholarships - After getting good schooling, the poor should be able to get good marks. They just need the scholarships to be able to pursue their higher education without being stopped by the economic status.
c) Interest free loans - This is kind of a pay it forward scheme backed by government. Once the student becomes productive, he can pay back the money which can used to reduce the woes of another economically weak student.
d) Tuition free colleges - Did you know colleges are free for in many European countries ?
Tuition Free Universities and Colleges for International Students - Finland, Austria, Norway, Germany, Sweden have either free colleges or very low fees.
Unfortunately, the government of the privileged castes of India are interested in raising college fees instead of making them free.
If we all can bark up the right tree - the government, the problem of economic exclusion can be solved. So, let's all bow, bow!
Comments
Post a Comment