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The words ‘Empower’ & ‘Marginalized’ are heard regularly in modern day political & economic discourse. Modern day debate has started among policy makers, intellectuals & members of civil society whether marginalized communities could be uplifted & brought into the mainstream society without sufficiently empowering them or empower them sufficiently first so that this domino effect can bring these communities permanently into the mainstream.
The founding fathers of our constitution took the first basic step of achieving the above objective by providing reservations in jobs & educational institutions. This step had to be followed up by providing all the necessary inputs which would enable the community to stand up on it’s own & compete with the outside world, But alas, after the first decade of adopting our constitution, a small minority among the marginalized community started to dominate & did not allow the benefits of reservation to percolate deeper in the community leading to an increase in the number of marginalized. The net effect of this was the stalling of the second step in the process, because of which, a small minority which benefitted had to continue to depend on reservations to maintain the status quo.
After over seven decades, it is time for us to collectively introspect where things have gone wrong in this noble mission of uplifting these communities. For the vast majority, the benefits of the first step (reservations) have not reached, resulting in their continued dependence on doles provided by the government. The seven decades of reservations have resulted in socio economic upliftment of deprived sections albeit a minority of them. These sections can now start competing in the general pool.
At the same time, a dispassionate analysis must be made about the empowerment of marginalized sections – whether the present system is in a way limiting the realization of their full potential. Many of the students from the marginalized communities get admitted to higher education institutions but are unable to cope with the curriculum resulting in abnormally high dropout rates leading to shattering of confidence levels & self-esteem. This is the direct fallout of the present system when the students, without sufficient grooming, are thrust into professional colleges depriving them of a fair chance to compete. As a result, suicides are being reported which tragically takes the turn of class discrimination. In this regard, it is pertinent to mention that last year IIT Bombay issued a bizarre circular asking the fresh batch students not to mention the rank to their fellow students.
It is high time our policy makers take a serious view of this issue & come out with a pragmatic solution which will involve providing the best of facilities & inputs to the students of marginalized communities, which they are alleged to be deprived of for generations. This will enable them to compete with everybody on equal footing & take their rightful place on the high table of success – even in the private sector where their representation at present is low.
Like their privileged counterparts, these students also have the mettle & zeal to succeed – what is required is right mix of facilities & inputs which will go a long way in their socio-economic upliftment instead of just thrusting them in to an alien world.
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