Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR), a civic organisation, has added its voice to a change in Meghalaya’s job and education reservation system that would benefit tribals from poor backgrounds.
The expert committee constituted by the state government to study proposals to alter the five decades-old reservation system has invited suggestions from the public, political parties and other stakeholders.
According to the current policy, even the richest Garos and Khasi-Jaintias who can afford to send their children to elite private schools, extra tuition, etc can avail of the quota and this gives them a huge advantage over the poorest tribals. Yesterday, a social activist, Khroo Lamsalanki Pariat, had suggested reserving 10 percent of quota slots within the tribal allowances for members of the community whose families earn not more than Rs 5 lakh per annum.
TUR’s suggestion goes a step further by recommending the utilisation of a ‘deprivation points system’.
The deprivation points system would be based on both the individual’s family background as well as where he/she is from and where he/she has been educated.
“These deprivation points can be calculated every five years based on district wise developmental data,” TUR said. “So, for example, a first generation girl learner, whose parents are not government servants and who is from an underdeveloped district and has studied in local vernacular school and college would get certain points that shall elevate her chances of getting the job compared to someone who may belong to her tribe but is a child of a Grade A officer and has studied in Shillong in an expensive private school.”
Such factors could seem daunting to calculate but TUR believes that in the age of Big Data “this exercise of deprivation points within the existing reservation quota can be easily implemented.”
According to the organisation, deprivation and representation in Meghalaya is not only community based but also has a geographical and economic basis. “The present reservation formulae privileges people who, although belonging to the indigenous communities, are also based in developed districts and belong to upper classes of these communities who have gone to expensive private schools and colleges both in the state and outside the state,” it said.
If the reservation policy has to have more egalitarian outcomes, the various indicators of deprivation of individuals have to be taken into account, it added.
Most of the arguments to and for changes to the reservation policy are based purely on ethnic identity. Garos and Khasi-Jaintias have reservations in state government jobs and education slots of 40 percent each despite the latter outnumbering the former by a wide margin.
“The recent demands to review (and change) Meghalaya’s reservation policy has opened up a Pandora’s box of grievances,” TUR said. “On one side are some who see the review as a zero-sum game of communities, where one community’s gain would be another community’s loss. On the other hand are those who don’t want to upset the status quo because the tenuous and fragile community relations that make up Meghalaya are threatened.”
TUR believes that in a democracy public policy should not be a zero-sum game or jockeying for community pride, especially when it comes to a reservation policy/affirmative action. “Affirmative action constitutionally is not about numerical representation but about transcending historic power imbalances and deprivation so as to have a more egalitarian future,” it said.
TUR believes that a democratic state ought to privilege its weakest and most deprived and its suggestions regarding Meghalaya’s reservation policy are not about reworking of the current formula but about the outcomes and realities of the functioning of the reservation policy after 50 years of Meghalaya’s statehood.
