The Hindu Business Line : Inclusive education

The challenge for the government is to ensure there are few losers, which means massively increasing the number and spread of educational institutions.

Given the country’s constitutional history of affirmative action, the Supreme Court could not but have held as constitutionally valid the Central legislation providing for reservation of seats to socially and educationally backward classes in educational institutions administered or funded by the Government. The ruling, incidentally, also affirmed as valid the 93rd Constitution amendment that empowered the state to frame laws of affirmative action for the benefit o f such classes of persons.

There is no denying the fact that there existed a groundswell of public support for the concept of affirmative action favouring the socially and economically backward classes at the time the Constitution was framed. That support may have been somewhat muted in more recent times but it is fair to say that those who hold the radical view that such stipulations have outlived their purpose are in a minority. Witness the fact that even in the latest legal action, the reservation for scheduled castes and tribes, a manifestly disempowered class of citizens, was not challenged. It was only the other stipulation, that such reservation be extended to other backward classes, that led to the violent protests in the wake of the law being passed. The agitating students saw in the law a brazen attempt to corner, for a section of the ruling elite, benefits of state-funded higher education to the detriment of the rest. Indeed it was also painted as an attempt at playing a brand of vote-bank politics. In contrast, members of the Constituent Assembly who were drafting a legal framework for affirmative action were, at worst, accused of being hopelessly idealistic but their intentions, otherwise, were beyond reproach.

If this was the constitutional framework, the Supreme Court had only to concern itself with answering a limited set of questions. One, whether on a holistic reading of the Preamble, the Directive Principles of State Policy and the provisions of the Constitution, affirmative action could be extended to other backward classes. Two, whether caste can be the basis for judging backwardness, if suitable criteria for excluding the creamy layer of the castes are identified. Lastly, in the light of its own judicial precedents, whether the Government was right in enacting the special legislation. The Court quite rightly felt that the answers to all the three questions had to be in the affirmative. One must, of course, sympathise with those at the fringe of selection, who would now lose out. The challenge for the government is to ensure there are few losers, which means massively increasing the number and spread of educational institutions so as to provide affordable, quality education to anyone who wants it.

Related Stories:
OBC quota law held valid
IITs: Quality only because of exclusivity

More Stories on : Editorial | Education | Courts/Legal Issues

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Inclusive education

Energy policy: Band aids for bullet wounds

Deductibility of debt for wealth tax

Countering tax evasion the Kautilya way

Opening the doors of learning wider

Fed: Sending the wrong signals?

Thorny issues in the Industrial Park Scheme, 2008

No restraint on departmental appeals

Wary of sovereign wealth funds