Aarakshan | Debate on Reservation in India

Reservation or Aarakshan is a practice that has been followed by the Indian government for almost a century now. It is the setting aside of a certain number of seats in government institutions for the under-represented castes and tribes of India.

The reservation system was initiated as a measure to uplift the downtrodden class to the level of the upper classes and ensure proper representation of this class in political and other areas. The main argument against this whole system comes from people who think that reservation has been present in India from a long time now and it is high time that it should be removed. The worst sufferers of this have always been the general population, who have lost out on seats in schools, colleges, jobs and like because of reservation. The counter attack for this comes from the lower castes and many other who believe that reservation should not be done away with as the resources in the society are still not equally divided.

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Also, the basis of reservation has been a huge question in the argument. This is because economic criteria cannot be the sole decider for who gets reservation and who does not. It can be very well seen that many people belonging to the lower castes and tribes are not that worst off when it comes to the economic status. But, at the same time, there are families who belong to the higher caste group but are not well off economically.

All these arguments leave us with many questions related to reservation- its effectiveness and its importance. The solution to this can be reached only when we learn to break the existing caste system that is present even today and learn to grow in a society where the resources are equally and justifiably distributed.