[Assam] What’s government for Gurjjars?

Tue Jun 5 10:31:54 EDT 2007

>It is about time India did away with the 
>reservation system based on caste, tribe and 
>backwardness (it >is well beyond the original 10 
>years) and started something new like government 
>doe-out based on >economic status of the 
>citizens. The system would be more equitable 
>that way. The voting practices in >India also 
>will change drastically for the better.

*** What are the chances that any such thing will 
become a reality in the foreseeable future? Why 
do you think no reform has come about?  And why 
do you think it will change?

At 7:55 PM -0700 6/4/07, Dilip/Dil Deka wrote:
>All this is only for money. Isn't it? The 
>article describes why the demand rises for quota 
>in public sector jobs.
>If the Meenas get it, why shouldn't the Gujjars? 
>Right? If the Bodos can get it, why not the 
>Koch-Rajbangshis?
>
>It is about time India did away with the 
>reservation system based on caste, tribe and 
>backwardness (it is well beyond the original 10 
>years) and started something new like government 
>doe-out based on economic status of the 
>citizens. The system would be more equitable 
>that way. The voting practices in India also 
>will change drastically for the better.
>
>Dilip Deka
>
>
>==============================================================================
>
>What’s government for Gurjjars?
>
>Laveesh Bhandari
>
>Posted online: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 at 0000 
>hrs <http://www.indianexpress.com/story/32694.html#>
>
>At market’s lower end, public sector jobs are 
>prized. To stop caste fights redefine eligibility
>
>
>Related Stories
>
><http://www.indianexpress.com/story/29969.html>Trends 
>& trivia in India 
>story<http://www.indianexpress.com/story/25735.html>It’s 
>not hammer vs 
>sickle<http://www.indianexpress.com/story/24480.html>The 
>devil is in the 
>leakage<http://www.indianexpress.com/story/23482.html>Wages 
>of the 
>young<http://www.indianexpress.com/story/20653.html>No 
>homes away from home
>
>  Gurjjars are now demanding a greater share of 
>the public sector employment pie. This community 
>is not the first in asking for either a greater 
>share or a ‘better’ categorisation. And with the 
>Rajasthan chief minister convincing them to call 
>off the stir, one can be certain that the 
>Gurjjars will not be the last in making these 
>demands. Some communities such as the Meenas may 
>have made good use of the opportunities that 
>came their way via reservation, but many others 
>are yet to do so.
>Either way, this is the start of an interesting 
>socio-political churn. The beneficiaries will 
>attempt at ensuring that such benefits continue 
>and the non-beneficiaries will try to ensure 
>that they also hop onto the bandwagon. If the 
>two groups are competitors, then each may also 
>try to prevent the other from benefiting. But 
>why does this happen? In this era of rapid 
>growth and ever-increasing employment 
>opportunities, why should anyone want to battle 
>it out to get a government job?
>The answer is surprisingly quite unambiguous. 
>Monetary and non-monetary benefits received from 
>government jobs are far higher than those 
>received by private sector employees in a range 
>of occupations. And this difference is so large 
>that it is well worth the effort of fighting 
>street battles for preferential treatment.
>Of course, not all government or public sector 
>jobs pay more than similar private sector jobs. 
>Take, for instance, the CEOs of SBI and 
>Citibank. The former earns much less. And 
>therefore rarely will you see senior managers or 
>bureaucrats fighting for reservations. But the 
>lifetime benefits earned at the middle and lower 
>levels in the hierarchy are far higher in the 
>government than those earned in the private 
>sector.
>This writer was part of a team that recently 
>conducted a survey of 7500 respondents on a 
>range of issues related to their expectation 
>from the Indian state for a study by the 
>National Foundation of India. The respondents 
>were located in rural and urban areas, belonged 
>to all economic and social groups, from states 
>spread over northern, southern, eastern and 
>western parts of the country. In short, a highly 
>representative coverage of Indians was included. 
>I take the liberty of using some of that primary 
>data.
>The first and most unsurprising response was 
>related to overall preference for a government 
>job. Eighty-eight per cent of the respondents 
>stated that they would prefer a lower paying job 
>with certainty of tenure rather than a higher 
>paying job with uncertainties. But it is not 
>that government jobs are preferred only on that 
>count.
>Government jobs are preferred on a range of 
>criteria: post-retirement benefits (97 per 
>cent), job security (97 per cent), health care 
>benefits (81 per cent), conducive working hours 
>(83 per cent), and higher incomes (58 per cent). 
>Moreover, even in the non-tangibles many 
>consider government jobs to be better: greater 
>job satisfaction (89 per cent), and more 
>respectable (92 per cent). Almost 97 per cent of 
>the respondents preferred a government job to a 
>private one. The survey had many other queries 
>on health care, education, housing, nutrition, 
>etc, and the role of the state. On no other 
>issue did we see such strong agreement among the 
>respondents.
>Needless to say, government jobs have many 
>benefits. The first set consists of those that 
>are quite explicit and include the kind of 
>issues that respondents were queried about — 
>health care, pensions, incomes, uncertainties. 
>The second set of benefits is more in the tacit 
>nature — the chaiwala who will not charge the 
>policeman, the side payment for the permission 
>granted, the diwali gift, etc. And the third 
>group is of a more derivative nature — the 
>‘respect’ and ‘power’ derived from being the 
>representative of the state.
>The long-term solution therefore is also quite 
>simple. Ensure that either the difference 
>between public and private sector jobs’ 
>emoluments reduces, or ensure that beneficiary 
>criteria are different.
>There are some ways of doing this. The first is 
>to not increase public sector salaries until 
>private sector pay catches up. However, this 
>model will not work, because it may lead to a 
>high divergence between the private and public 
>sectors at the higher hierarchical levels. The 
>second is to create conditions whereby the 
>private sector salary structure rises up to that 
>in the government. However, the large numbers 
>entering the workforce create a natural barrier 
>for rapid wage increases at the lower 
>hierarchical levels. Perhaps that is why average 
>wages of production workers have not increased 
>in recent years. In other words, both these 
>options are politically unsustainable. 
>Imaginative governments have found a third way. 
>They have merely re-categorised some public 
>sector jobs. Temporary teachers, for instance, 
>are today being hired by the public sector 
>school system, whose salary levels are at par 
>with, if not lower than, private school teachers.
>There is also a fourth way. Rather than play 
>around with relative salary structure of 
>government jobs, or re-categorise the position 
>as temporary, we could merely re-categorise 
>eligibility. That is, let the jobs be reserved 
>for those who are economically underprivileged. 
>There can then be no caste-based disagreements 
>on the reservation front.
>The same survey also queried respondents on what 
>they perceived to be the best criteria for 
>reservation. About 31 per cent stated a 
>preference for reservations to be on the basis 
>of economic status only; an even lower 
>proportion of 8 per cent had a preference for it 
>being on the basis of social status only; and 
>almost 61 per cent preferred reservation to be 
>on the basis of some combination of caste and 
>economic criteria. Moreover, this response 
>pattern is the same across various groupings 
>such as ST, SC, OBCs and forward castes. The 
>bulk of Indians (about 91 per cent) would like 
>economic criteria to be used as a basis for 
>reservations, either individually or in 
>combination with some social status criteria.
>Whichever way we see it, we will eventually have 
>to shift away from the purely caste based 
>reservation criteria. They promote the wrong 
>sort of competition, rewards the wrong set of 
>individuals, punishes those who deserve better, 
>and overall sets up an incentive mechanism where 
>youth will deem fit to fight it out for 
>achieving the underprivileged caste status. 
>Either that, or reduce the benefits of 
>government jobs.
>
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