Whenever there's a debate on the reservation policy, the proponents bring upon the historical justification for it — that the communities have been discriminated against and not allowed to access education, social mobility, etc. While historical justification has its place, we should also seek justification for today, to ensure that the policy is serving its purpose.
Let's take the issue of atrocities against SC/STs and see the relevance of reservation of SC/ST in this context.
To get some perspective, let's understand a few atrocities that are committed against the SC/STs—
- Parading an SC/ST member naked or with garlands of footwear. Just last month, an SC man was paraded naked in Madhya Pradesh.
- Forcing an SC/ST member to eat obnoxious substances. In 2019, two SC persons were forced to eat human excreta in Tamil Nadu.
And many more are detailed in specific in the SC/ST atrocities act. Just reading these atrocities will give a sense of indignity to which SC/ST are vulnerable.
Now, imagine that a victim of this atrocity musters the courage to complain to the police. If there is a rule of law in the polity, the police will implement the SC/ST atrocities act and ensure that justice is done to the victim. But, the police are not without fear or fervor. They are also from the populace itself and could be motivated by the very feelings that led to the atrocity. Justice is not done.
Thus comes the case of reservation. It comes from the assumption that if the victim can complain to the police, who also belong to the SC/ST community, probably s/he would empathize better with the victim and enforce the law. And if reasonable enforcement happens, it would create a deterrent effect on the perpetrators and the SC/ST members can fear less about atrocities being committed on them.
If the law works on auto-pilot mode, this arrangement is probably not needed. It is our failure to create a rule of law that necessitates reservation.
The same logic applies to make a case for the reservation of women, LGBTQ, and other marginalized sections of society. And the same logic makes me believe that income-based reservation has converted reservation policy into a policy for economic justice, while it is supposed to be a policy for social justice.
References:
- Anand Teltumbde on how the misuse of the law is a bogey.
- Supreme Court on how low convictions is due to shoddy investigation
- Ethnographic reading of the SC/ST Atrocities act
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