Positive Discrimination

Discrimination in itself is a phrase with a negative inclination, distinguishing people on the basis of caste, color, sex, religion and the like. Conversely in this write-up I am attributing positivity to this non-positive theme thereby stupefying my respected readers. But this write-up is only to pop out the positive element of discrimination; hence the name positive discrimination.

We are living in an egalitarian world that promises equal rights without any form of discrimination. But the irony is that the only means that is used in balancing this tricky equation of equality is the discrimination itself or I must say positive discrimination. To elucidate let me present some common examples.

Take the case of seat reservations in transportation vehicles by women, elderly and the handicapped persons. Accordingly such people are given preference over others in order to ease their living or to bring them somewhat on par with others. The 50% reservation bill for women in various political bodies is based on this.  Likewise in tribal areas, the backward populace is given enough subsidies to captivate the various opportunities to develop.  Locals are given more incentives than outsiders to start their own firms. All this helps in making these Godforsaken people to rise and shine. On the similar grounds the financial assistance provided to the economically weaker sections in educational sector also qualifies for positive discrimination. So here comes the term discrimination in the positive sense. Poor and needy people thus get benefited by getting discriminated; positively.

Now enough with the plus points; let me turn the wheel to the drawbacks. It is rightly said that to err is human. So everything that is a brainchild of humans is bound to have some snags as well. And here in this case positive discrimination is no exception. And the major drawback in this case is that the right of enjoying the reservations is exploited like anything. By and large people that are the eligible for being discriminated on positive basis are misusing the same very meanly. The concept that was started to boost the spirit of social equality has been badly captivated by bigwigs. As a result rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming even more moneyless.

People are passing on the reservation rights to their progeny as if passing hand-me-downs to their kin. As a result an indefinite loop populates in which a father passes his heirloom of rejoicing reservations to his son and the son to the grandson and so on… There is no break. And thus the white-collar jobs are mostly occupied by the people carrying these reservation certificates acknowledged by their own similarly qualified big Daddies. All this is turning into an abuse rather murder of common aptitude. 

On watching the lucrative benefits of belonging to a backward area, people are greasing the palms of district office clerks only to mark their certificates with the magical word of “CATEGORY”. Shockingly many well-off officials are feeding the shady officials with carrot to wrongly craft fake income certificates only to make their wards qualify for the scholarship programs that are otherwise meant only for the economically weaker sections. I seriously doubt if any investigation has ever been done in this regard. Following the exploitation of reservations, many other ethnic communes are emerging, claiming to be the real beneficiary of the reservation policies thereby leaving no space for the ill-fated common public who carry meager certificates only with an underlined ugly word of “GENERAL”.

To end up this never ending topic I would like to mention that discrimination in itself is not an unimposing term in the constitutional dictionary. It is rather more democratic, promising a better society. Alas it has been misrepresented now and then. In order to facilitate the concept healthily, there should be a limit to the scope of reservations. The only beneficiaries should be the technically weaker sections and strictly minus the communes based on caste or religion. The bottom line is that it’s only us or more specifically the one’s enjoying the boon of positive discrimination that can iron out the wrinkles of reservations. That’s the truth, the whole truth.

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