Open Forum

New Delhi, 3 March 2016

Pvt Sector Job Quota

PRE-ELECTION STUNT

By Dr S Saraswathi

(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)

The National Council of Backward Classes (NCBC) constituted under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has come out with a recommendation to the Union Government that legislation be passed enjoining the private sector comprising businesses, hospitals, schools, trusts, etc., to reserve 27% of jobs for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

It is practically extension of the Mandal Commission recommendations adopted for public service employment and already implemented. If accepted, it will expand the Quota Raj by bringing private sector employers under its domain.

Accordingly an official committee is said to have been formed and it is consulting industrialists and corporate leaders on devising operational modalities of this scheme.

Political analysts may be inclined to comment that as elections to    legislative Assemblies are fast approaching in five States, a long-pending issue that will polarize voters and help mobilise block votes is being resurrected. Several parties like the Communists, JD(U), BSP, SP, the Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu, the PMK and others have immediately supported the recommendation. A section of the BJP is also said to be favourable to the idea. Others like the BSP had included job reservation in the private sector as a poll promise in earlier elections.

Doubtless, the proposal for covering the private sector in the Reservation Policy is not altogether new. It is often raised with regard to SCs and STs   and gives rise to hot debates and hotter reactions. But, with awareness level ever rising among people and political parties constantly on watch to pick issues that will divide and/or unite voters, the timing of re-opening the controversy and extending it to OBCs has raised more than ordinary interest.

Though the subject has been discussed on several occasions previously, it is for the first time a definite recommendation has come from the official Commission. The reason is said to be the environment of shrinking job openings  in  the public  sector  which nullify the  benefits of  job quota  however sincerely  it  is  pursued.   

As a member of the NCBC remarked, the recommendation is viewed by the OBCs as a step that would take the fruits of productivity and development to hitherto disadvantageous groups and eventually turn out to be for the benefit of the entire society. 

Read carefully. The Mandal Commission did not omit the private sector. It recommended application of its proposal in toto to all recruitment to public sector undertakings both under Central and State governments as also in nationalized banks and said that, “All private sector undertakings which have received financial assistance from the Government in one form or the other should also be obliged to recruit personnel on the aforesaid basis”, meaning 27% reservation for OBCs. Another recommendation states, “All universities and affiliated colleges should also be covered by the above scheme of reservation”.

In 2004, over 200 leading corporate houses and their associations communicated to the Prime Minister their willingness to adopt affirmative action to empower persons from socially and educationally backward.  Within the Congress also, there was then support for affirmative action, though not for outright reservation policy in the private sector.

Vital distinction between Reservation and Affirmative Action is hardly appreciated in our country. The intention of giving opportunity to backward classes may be common to both, but details of policy and action are not.

The term “affirmative action” can be traced to US President John Kennedy who issued an Executive Order in 1961 to ensure that applicants are employed and employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, colour, or national origin in federally funded projects.   Equal employment opportunities are the foundation for this policy. 

Regulations governing affirmative action in private companies in the US were provided by an Executive Order issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 with a view to strengthening and enhancing the standard of accountability of private companies for equal employment opportunity. Mandatory or voluntary, Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) in the US comprises four components – commitment, record keeping, analysis, and outreach.

AAP is mandatory in private companies selling over $50,000 in products or services to the federal government and employs at least 50,000 workers. It is voluntary where private companies which are not government contractors choose to use federal guidelines and standards for development and inclusive hiring policy.

Quotas are unlawful under an Executive Order. President Nixon said: “We would not impose quotas, but would require federal contractors to show affirmative action to meet the goals of increasing minority employment”.   Courts have maintained in several cases that strict racial quota is unconstitutional, but affirmative action is not.

On the contrary, in India, the demand is for “quota” – caste-wise, social-educational category-wise, religion-wise, region-wise, sex-wise and so on.   Terms such as “affirmative action” or “equal employment opportunity” are rarely used. No country has any law like caste-based recruitment or reservation policy except India. The European Union insists on having on their boards at least 40% women members. Gender consideration is foremost in these countries in the matter of equal employment opportunity.

Our problem is our inability to come out of our preoccupation with caste.  The leaders of OBCs particularly seem to want continuance of the caste system and all its manifestations particularly discriminatory practices. They   demand caste census and surveys that can yield only some fictitious unverifiable statistics. The clamour for reservation comes mostly from the creamy layer of the technically “backward”, but actually forward classes. 

In this politics, the presence of OBCs in large proportion in trade and commerce is conveniently overlooked. Backwardness is also delinked from economic status for the purpose of both including and excluding castes.

The tendency to consider jobs in terms of monthly salary and allowances, perks and privileges, power and authority, holidays, pension and retirement benefits etc., is a root cause for the rise of the Reservation Policy. Work, employment, duty, responsibility, accountability, efficiency, productivity and output involved in jobs are pushed to the background. Worse still, promotions that are meant as rewards for performance and incentives for further progress are demanded on caste basis. Surely, degeneration of work ethics is already in full swing.

Whether in public or private sector, pros and cons of Reservation policy are the same. If the trend is allowed to continue, absurd demand for quota in the selection of sports teams and dance troupes may emerge. 

It is time now to stop this game and seriously search for an alternative method of uplifting the backward and ending inequality of opportunities.   Universal education and inclusive development through several kinds of skill training are our prime needs. Equal opportunity will automatically follow. 

Vertically organized caste hierarchy is already breaking and breaking fast in southern India. Political dominance of upper castes ended several decades ago in many regions. But, political leaders of all parties will not allow the demise of caste and are over-zealous to keep alive the system that is extremely useful in fighting election. The real OBCs must wake up.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)