Probably the month of April , is a month I think over and above normal limit.. because my first ramble was in April 2015 on a totally different topic and today too I thought I should pen a few words on my thoughts:
A lot of my friends and relatives , who are very nice and excellent people , humane and understanding, are of the view that "continuation of reservation policy of India" is not fair or not right. They state that after 69 years of Independence the existence of reservation for the upliftment of SC/ST/MBC/OBC/BC is not serving any purpose, but just creating an economic divide and also nor allowing or providing for the really deserving meritorious candidates of forward community - a chance to prove their mettle.
I want to be really honest here, I had the very same opinion and very much belonged to group of people with the same line of thought till very recently. Later I was taught about what was really happening in the society, in and around me, shown the existence of oppression, discrimination, suppression, and subjugation practiced and continued to be practiced in the city and in the villages closer to the city too. So I decided to learn about it a little and have started reading about it.
In the process of this search of mine which is still ongoing, I find that we did not have to look far for discrimination, "perse". It is practiced right in our household on a day to day basis . We have women/men who help us in carrying out our daily lives - we call them "servant maid", "driver", "gardener", "watchman" depending on the service provided by them. I remember seeing in a kinder garden book identifying these people as "HELPERS".
A number of us carry certain inbuilt prejudices against these very people on a day to day basis:
(1) There are still households where "maid servant" is not allowed inside the house for washing vessels, rather asked to wash the same at a sit out or balcony. Sweeping and moping are done by house members themselves as they do not want to her to come inside the house.
(2) Separate glass tumblers/ plates are kept to give the coffee/tea or food or tiffin; usually leftovers are given (without even checking to see if it has become stale or not)(Here I need to also add that there are people who prefer to give left overs to daughter in law ).
(3) Even if the maid enters the house and does her work , she cannot touch the kitchen worktable, cook food, make bed, or even boil water for self or members of the house as there are people who still do not like to eat/drink food made by "them" or "served" by "them".
(4) If you think to say "no-no we have cooks ". Ok fine I accept. but please check if our "maid servant" can cook our food or we have a "different cook/helper".
Let me reiterate, I am just thinking aloud and rambling not finger pointing at faulty practices or beliefs.
When the "maid servant" goes on leave, there are people who still cut /threaten to cut her wages for not reporting to work as promised or for uninformed absence.I have heard people say , " inspite of giving so much and treating her so well" -- These "class of people lack gratitude".
Whenever, I hear this statement , I am struck with guilt because there have been several occasions when I have been forced to absent myself from duty without "prior" intimation inspite of technological upgradation. Secondly, honesty, sincerity, discipline these are individualistic values and principle and can never be generalised for a group , clan, race, caste etc.
Next comes the statement of "ingratitude inspite of giving her so much"- Why should someone feel gratuitous to us for having taken from us, our old/used clothes, vessels, furniture/left over food, etc.? Did we not give it to them for the reason that we were in no need of them any more, rather than throwing in the dust bin we found a taker and handed it over to them "benevelontly"--for which act we expect "gratitude".
So, in that scenario have we in turn be grateful to our pay masters by any chance ? Please do not tell me that we cannot compare with them, because we can. What is the difference between them and us..? just think,.. We have been "privileged/gifted/blessed" to be born in a family where the parents have helped us reach this level/ or rather a certain level in a society such that we are in a "financial" position to employ them. They are as human as we are, with all the faculties being same, -- place/house of birth and circumstances being different we are where we are , whereas they are where they are.--- This "gap" is purely man made.. no doubt and if you believe in humanity and humaneness I am sure you will agree with me.
I am not saying that we have not struggled to reach a certain level or we have all had it easy, but the degree and extent of struggle and the point of origin of the struggle for us has always been on a higher plane/level and NOT in the socially conditioned lowest strata... which matters a lot... really a lot...Also the extent of oppression, subjugation faced by us can in no way be compared to the people who were born in the "category - other than General category of caste and community ". Again I am not saying that there are no poor people in General Category- but life lead being compared is not financial comparison but "societal position"--- How many times have we not heard this comment- " oh that girl/boy inspite of being born in .... is forced to work at this place.. ; inspite of belonging this... is not able to progress/smart enough...... etc.. etc..".
We have been privileged to be born in a family where for our parents age 4 of a child signifies admission to school without hesitation.whereas even in cities today number of children are not sent to balavadi or school till they 6 years due to lack of funds.
There was a whatsapp video doing rounds which said that even if an SC/ST candidate gets "zero" he will be eligible for admission in IIM's where as people of "General Category" or "FC" who had struggled for 3 years taken intensive coaching but missed the seat due to 1/2 percentile, which is claimed as unjust.
I have only one question, where the video maker took so much of effort to create the video to prove that a zero can get a reserved candidate an admission, it would have been equally nice if he had taken some more effort to find out (1) how many SC/ST applicants where there in these high profile elite institutions like IIT and IIM and how many such applicants managed to procure seat with a zero.
(2) And out of these candidates how many belonged to places which did not fall under the category of Tier A, B, C cities - from the interior rural core villages,
(3) Do we know how many had actually applied/ Are actually aware of the existence of these institutions and possibilites?
(4) Also if there was any change in the curriculum these students had to study because of their reserved category or had they to compete with all students with the same curriculum.
While writing this piece I looked up Census report Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 --Census report of SECC 2011 in Wikipedia which states
So, in that scenario have we in turn be grateful to our pay masters by any chance ? Please do not tell me that we cannot compare with them, because we can. What is the difference between them and us..? just think,.. We have been "privileged/gifted/blessed" to be born in a family where the parents have helped us reach this level/ or rather a certain level in a society such that we are in a "financial" position to employ them. They are as human as we are, with all the faculties being same, -- place/house of birth and circumstances being different we are where we are , whereas they are where they are.--- This "gap" is purely man made.. no doubt and if you believe in humanity and humaneness I am sure you will agree with me.
I am not saying that we have not struggled to reach a certain level or we have all had it easy, but the degree and extent of struggle and the point of origin of the struggle for us has always been on a higher plane/level and NOT in the socially conditioned lowest strata... which matters a lot... really a lot...Also the extent of oppression, subjugation faced by us can in no way be compared to the people who were born in the "category - other than General category of caste and community ". Again I am not saying that there are no poor people in General Category- but life lead being compared is not financial comparison but "societal position"--- How many times have we not heard this comment- " oh that girl/boy inspite of being born in .... is forced to work at this place.. ; inspite of belonging this... is not able to progress/smart enough...... etc.. etc..".
We have been privileged to be born in a family where for our parents age 4 of a child signifies admission to school without hesitation.whereas even in cities today number of children are not sent to balavadi or school till they 6 years due to lack of funds.
There was a whatsapp video doing rounds which said that even if an SC/ST candidate gets "zero" he will be eligible for admission in IIM's where as people of "General Category" or "FC" who had struggled for 3 years taken intensive coaching but missed the seat due to 1/2 percentile, which is claimed as unjust.
I have only one question, where the video maker took so much of effort to create the video to prove that a zero can get a reserved candidate an admission, it would have been equally nice if he had taken some more effort to find out (1) how many SC/ST applicants where there in these high profile elite institutions like IIT and IIM and how many such applicants managed to procure seat with a zero.
(2) And out of these candidates how many belonged to places which did not fall under the category of Tier A, B, C cities - from the interior rural core villages,
(3) Do we know how many had actually applied/ Are actually aware of the existence of these institutions and possibilites?
(4) Also if there was any change in the curriculum these students had to study because of their reserved category or had they to compete with all students with the same curriculum.
While writing this piece I looked up Census report Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 --Census report of SECC 2011 in Wikipedia which states
- 5.4% of rural India has completed high school.
- 3.4% of rural households have a family member who is a graduate
There are memes which say that Obama takes deserved and India has reserved candidates.. How far is this true ? Who are the people who aspire to go out.. Do they alone form our country. Only if I know that there is a choice for me other than what is provided will i be required to choose , what if I do not know I have a choice then ?...
There could be a Maximum of 1 crore govt employees.. The number of internet uses as per http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/india/ form 34.8 % of our population around 31 lakhs are central government employees and considering the employees of all state governments put together it could be a maximum of 1 crore or 2 crore . My math may be wrong. I could not get the exact details.. but even on a rough estimate.. the percentage of reserved candidates who could definitely be employed in Governement and public sector establishments could form a maximum of 2% of the total population.. what about the rest.... ?
As a middle class urban family person, I face a lot of limitation, so what would the scene be for a low income/BPL rural family. Can I even imagine or empathise. It is not possible for me.
Before we sign a petition for anything be it for reservation or anti. I guess it is important for us to understand what exactly we are doing and whether our act is going to be beneficial or detrimental.
On a simple case , The Right to Education Act 2009, came into force in 2010.( A report on the status of implementation of the Act was released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on the one-year anniversary of the Act." The report admits that 8.1 million children in the age group six-14 remain out of school and there’s a shortage of 508,000 teachers country-wide." also, till date to the best of my knowledge the said act has not been implemented in any of the elite urban schools which are top ranked for academic performance. If this is not discrimination then what is...?
Do we Know the number of street children who have not got a chance to study under RTE; forget reservation...
It is easy for us to do lip service and sympathise and state "Oh ! so sad! I understand that they are having a bad deal..... but....." Exactly,,, that "but " is what matters. I remember attending a meet after the rains where I met a young social worker whose speech touched me to the core, It made me realise that there is no need to feel any sense of benevolence /pride/satisfaction /happiness for the little acts of kindness extended by us as there was much more to be understood and taken care of. She had a very pertinent question " You fight for your property rights when a piece of land owned by your father /forefathers is not judiciously divided. Where is your sense of righteousness when just like that people who have settled for generations in an embankment are thrown away in the name of rehabilitation from their homes, livelihoods of period spanning from 25-50 years. Why do you not consider it fair to fight for the right of these people - Who are entitled to the right of rehabilitation in and around their area where they have spent more than a generation . How can you disagree/disallow a fight for their rights. They are not an eyesore as long as it was sunny once it rains they have become eye sore and unaesthetic due to rains and clogged drains"... This question has been echoing in my mind since then...
There were memes which said " maid in India is more important than Made in India"... friends , I am sure that all of you are aware that this facility to have another human work for us as a maid is not available for all of us who aspire to study and stay abroad in the land of LUCRE.. There however , big or small our house/apartment/villa is .. we have to clean your own clothes, vessels, bathrooms toilets, gardens, lawns etc.. as otherwise we need to pay high charges.. we are willing to do our own house-work in a country that is not our own.. due to limitations , but not willing to be considerate towards the "maid" who does not allow us to do the "dirty work" in our own country... Is this fair to another human being..?
I am not here to preach or advice , I might be right, or wrong, friends you may agree or disagree that is your choice.. But these thoughts were passing through my mind for quite sometime. I feel that before we fight against policies like reservation, it is very important for us to be aware of what we are doing and are we justified in doing it., because to me it appears that not many are actually "aware of their privileges" with which they are born. .
On a last note, I overheard a conversation in a house where funeral rites where just completed and there was excess food which was being packed to give to the needy instead of throwing it to the dustbin causing needless waste. One of the guests remarked that on a similar occasion, when they went to give the food to the people of streets. one woman asked her "madam, today there was a death in your house and after the rites, you cannot eat leftovers in the night so instead of using the dustbin or throwing it to the dogs you thought you could share it with us.. Suppose tomorrow something like this happens in my house, will it be okay if I can come and give you the left overs ..would you accept it. after all both of us are human beings" Friends, more than anything I felt sheer admiration for the gutsy illiterate lady who "dared" to voice her protest and displeasure ..
I learnt that self respect arises for the self irrespective of the area, caste, clan, creed, community, race, sex, gender, country you are born in . It is more important for us to accept people as human beings first no matter where they are.
Hoping that there are more humane humans...
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