Reservation Reverberation


“I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.”
- B.R. Ambedkar
Dr. Ambedkar must have done a meticulous analysis before asserting the above words. Why otherwise should he weigh up a community’s progress with the progress of its women? As statistics say, women consist of more than half of the world’s population. This fact itself manifests the need of equal women’s say in every realm of the soceity. Be it the participation of women in parliamentary issues, which has been a subject of argument for years, or be it the more recent- equal compensation and perks to be given to women IAF officers as is to their male counterparts. About 60 years ago it was written very clearly-that all citizens irrespective of their gender, creed, caste or religion should be allowed to practice any occupation and should be given equal privileges in the said office- in a  manuscript called The Constitution of India. Nevertheless, women still need to protest and ask for reservations to avail their much deserved rights. Does the state really work with the constitution as its base?
            Reservations are meant only to bring up the minority into prominent positions so that their community no longer remains a minority. Reservations are made so that the opinions and issues of all kinds of people from any corner of the country be identified and addressed. They are not here to stay for years. They should be eliminated once the purpose is served. But, this is not how we people look at it.  We believe that the minority should be suppressed as much as possible and should be allowed to participate only so much as the reservations allow. If women have 33% reservation in parliament everyone thinks of filling all the 33% seats so that women are represented adequately but noone says that women may exceed those reserved and represent themselves gallantly! That shows the difference in attitude towards us. What we intend to change is the attitude and essentially not the quantity. If the attitude changes even a single woman can represent the whole female community of the country and still have strong voice in the decision making body.
            Not only women but all the relatively small communities should look at themselves, not as minorities but as respectable citizens so that they themselves elevate their community from the ‘reservation spiderweb’. If you want reservations, make sure that you utilise the opportunity to bring out vibrant personalities from your community who would make a difference and eventually eliminate the necessity of reservations. Only then will the country truly behave like a democracy and the constitution will be valued indeed.

Comments

  1. "What we intend to change is the attitude and essentially not the quantity" is well worth a quotation in a popular speech or thereby, for its profound, yet efficient encapsulation of a fragment of hard reality which does affect all our day to day subsistence.

    Holistically its a very well writ article Deepti; I more or less agree wholly with the point of view presented. It is much past high time whence reservations need fulfill their true purpose and vanquish away in a deep slumber, preferably forever, and the lone process via which it may successfully happen in a major democracy alike ours has been well outlined above. Kudos.

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  2. Extremely well written and I completely agree with what you've said

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  3. i guess if women are given 33% reservation in parliament are they really going to represent it??it will be there hubbies who will operate as masters as yet today it had happened...i m a staunch supporter in favour of giving women reservation..but in the parliament it wont work...a lady can lead this nation...very well shown by sonia gandhi or pratibha devisingh patil or minkumari...but i m in big dilemma whether indian husbands will support there wifes or not??and about reservations..this nation will never be out of reservations because of vote bank politics..just watch it out...does it take 60 years for any minority to get out of there backwardness? in all superb topic n well written as usual...!!!

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  4. @Pradeep: You have not made your point clear... Do you want to say that women should not be given reservation because they receive less support from their family to stand upto the expectation? On the other hand,you are also saying that women have made it big by leading our nation (Sonia Gandhi, Pratibha Patil,Indira Gandhi). Taking your examples as reference i believe i can contradict your point that women's husbands will be decisive in the parliament. These are strong women and we must remember that 2 of these women did not have their husband with them to dominate or take the lead. They have handled it single handedly.

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  5. @deepti...i m a staunch supporter,who wants women to work with men equally..i support the reservation of 33% quota..the main lacunae of the INDIAN society is that WOMEN do not get supports from their family itself..one illustration once again..how many women do represent MAHARASHTRA in the parliament...jus one i guess BHAVNA GAWLI..no one else..u r true mrs sonia n indiraji dint had hubbies..but that doesnt make any sense that they were without husbands so they explored in national politics..what i mean to say is revolutionary changes should take place from grass root level..one question again to u DEEPTI..do u watch NDTV IMAGINE OR COLORS ?? i guess they should the real harassment of a women ..We MAHARASHTRIANS are progressive enough..so we let our mothers,sister to study,work,lead same as men..but what about the underdeveloped states of india..like bihar,UP,rajastan,jharkhand..where women are consider yet today as inferiors..we know that the mentally of such people will never change whatever may be the case..!! To bring women into the real flow of the society,politics will be by making revolutionary changes at grass root level...haan if by giving reservations women are going to progress i have no objections..!!! i support u in every aspect..but changes must be always from within n then external...first we need to change the mentality of the society..hope u must be satisfied with my answer..!!!

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