Economic Reservations In India: A Hypothetical Deviation From Caste-Based Mechanism

Jhankruti C. Badani, Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur

ABSTRACT

Marketed on the ideals of substantive equality, the Indian setup of Affirmative Action creates a Constitutional backing to reservations whereby providing concrete measures to remedy historical wrongs to marginalised communities by providing special and preferential treatments at present. However this model has been alleged to be predominantly focused around castes, which eventually resulted into growing discomfort among the remaining groups, leading to a major dialogue –that is– Whether the substitution of present class based policy package with economic reservations, solve the argument of biasedness and reverse discrimination? Owing to growing disparities, Government of India, deviating from the original prototype, introduced EWS reservations into the Constitution, thereby guaranteeing 10% quota for economically weaker sections. However, this criterion in the end narrows down to include those groups who although economically disadvantaged, ironically are considered socially advantaged in the alleged societal hierarchy. Resultantly, this triggered another debate as to whether the vision of makers of the Constitution to cut down caste based difference and class disparities has been overturned with inclusion of benefits of reservation for the ‘upper-castes’ or the ‘suvarna’ category. This article thus attempts to address these concerns so that the true spirit of Affirmative Action in India can be understood.

Keywords: Affirmative Action, EWS, Compensatory Discrimination, Preferential Treatment, Social Justice.