The Parliament of India recently passed the 124th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2019, to extend the system of reservation to economically weaker sections of the society. The new reservation policy gives 10% quota to economically weaker segment of the general caste category in government jobs and educational sectors. The parameter to decide the economic backwardness under the reservation system are income per annum of Rs 8 lakh or less, land owned upto five acres only, residential home smaller than 1,000 square feet and located in a plot of 109 yards in a notified municipal area or 209 yards in a non-non-notified municipality.
Earlier to this the Mandal Commission Recommendation of 1980, and its implementations in 1992 gave 27% reservation to Other Backward Classes. This increased the overall quota system from already existing 22.5% for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to 49.5%
The new reservation bill introduced few months ahead of general election received much criticism from the opposition party, viewed as an attempt of the government to increase their vote bank from the general category.
The main objective of reservation system in India is to uplift the socially, economically and educationally backward classes of the society. The framers of Indian Constitution viewed that it was important to give benefits to these sections who have been historically denied access to economic and social resources. The affirmative action introduced in India was to overcome the long due deprivation and include the deprived section of society in the mainstream and also make them a very productive part of development process.
The new reservation system is different from already existing reservation policy, as latter dealt with caste and former deals with economical status. Reservation is basically used as a tool to help socially and economically backward people and help them develop and be at par with other section of society, it acts as a bridge to remove the gap between the upper and lower classes/castes of society. So the new reservation based entirely on economical status gives a new impetus to the existing reservation system. It is interesting to see whether its implementation actually benefits its subject or was it just a pre-election action of the ruling party.
