Religion, Caste And Tribe Based Reservation - 3

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Empowering through entrepreneurship
By R. VAIDYANATHAN, Professor of Finance and Control, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In India, for the uplift of the socially and educationally backward classes, two Backward Classes Commissions were constituted by the President; the Kelkar panel of 1953, which submitted its report in 1955, and the Mandal commission of 1978, which gave the report in 1980. Both reports were rejected; the first by the then government (with Gobind Ballabh Pant as Home Minster under Jawaharlal Nehru), stating that Five-Year Plans are the solutions, and the second by the Indira Gandhi government, based on a memorandum given by the then Home Minister, Mr R. Venkatraman, stating that the facts provided by the Mandal Commission were faulty. No other panel was appointed for a while.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->On August 7, 1990, the former Prime Minister, Mr V. P. Singh implemented the faulty Mandal report. The Mandal Commission had suggested that the population of Other Backward Castes is 52 per cent based on the 1931 Census.

If, going by the 2001 Census, we add the SC and ST populations at 24.2 per cent (16.2 per cent plus 8.2 per cent), as per the 2001 Census figures, the three groups will constitute 76.4 per cent of the population. Adding the 2001 Census figures of Muslims at 13.4 per cent and Christians at 2.3 per cent brings the total to 92.1 per cent.

With Sikhs/Buddhists/Jains constituting 3.1 per cent (1.9 per ent+ 0.8 per cent + 0.4 per cent), we come to the absurd conclusion that the forward community is only of the order of 4.8 per cent. (Of course, some SCs will be part of the Sikh/Buddhist category). This brings into question the data used by the Mandal Commission and suggests that the affirmative action considered is neither practical nor feasible
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The enterprise survey reveals that of the total of 30.25 million enterprises in the country, 24.39 million (80 per cent) are self-financing. This speaks volumes of the credit delivery systems.

What needs to be debated is the enhancement of credit systems for the enterprises, more so those owned by SC/ST and OBCs. In other words, the focus should be on making entrepreneurs of the large segments of civil society, instead of creating large number of `proletariat' based on 19th century models.
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