Re-casteing debate

That certain sections of organised industry have grown concerned about the proportion of their workforce that consists of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is clear from the very fact that the Confederation of Indian Industry CII has worked to conduct a caste census of employees of 8,520 of its members. We can only be very slightly relieved,though. First,because of the very qualifiers that have to be used: certain sections,organised,and industry,which immediately reduce the scale of sensitisation; Indias economy is largely service-based and unorganised. Second,because this exercise is carried out under the continual,long-running political threat of private-sector reservations.

This newspaper is uneasy about the possibility of further increasing state power over the private sector,even in the service of a goal as laudable and essential as counteracting thousands of years of prejudice and stored-up deprivation. It will,if nothing else,be a deeply counterproductive move,creating a hierarchical shadow economy of bribery,forged caste certificates,and so on,which will benefit the connected,and not those whom we wish to include. Yet,as this newspapers report on the latest CII survey makes clear,some of Indias fastest-growing and most developed states and the ones with the largest formal sectors are the most problematic when it comes to the inclusion of historically disadvantaged castes and tribes. Gujarat and Maharashtra are particularly visible examples. There is much that those state governments must do to allow and encourage their industries to diversify their employment base.

Yet,there are lessons in the disaggregated state-wise figures. The states of the east and south,where education and social empowerment have moved further,seem to have done better in expanding employment opportunities. This also flags the limitations of a purely political mobilisation of disadvantaged social groups. In the end,there are predetermined constraints to what the private sector would be able to do in order to increase diversity,a limit imposed by the education system. An economy in which formal employment opportunities explode under new labour laws,and in which educational opportunities are not slanted against SCs and STs,will best serve the diversification of Indias workforce.