July 27th, 1951 is a day that most people may not
remember, however it is the day a momentous decision of the Supreme Court of
India came out. It was the day the decision of the State of Madras v. Champakam
Dorairajan came out; the day lead to an addition in the Constitution of India;
the addition concerning reservations in the Republic of India. Champakam Dorairajan was an
ordinary girl who had dreams of becoming a doctor, thus she applied to the
Madras Medical College, one of the only medical schools in India at the time.
She had big hopes and determination to make it into the college and she strived
to succeed, however there was something stopping her in her path: her caste. She
was rejected, and her hopes and dreams were crushed. She was rejected because
she belonged to the Brahmin community. Her caste was
something that was out of her control, thus she asked the government to stop this
unfairness in the community. She asked the government to help the people of
different castes in India. For years before this court case had come up, the
Madras Medical College only accepted 2 Brahmins per year to enter their college
compared to the 7 from the “upper castes”. This
violated Champakam’s rights as a citizen of India, because in Part III of the
constitution it states that, “No citizen shall be denied admission into any
educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State
funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them”. A verdict was heard, that had struck down the past of the
reservation policy in India, and thus a new amendment was born. Article 15
states, “Nothing herein contained shall preclude the State from providing
special facilities for educationally backward sections of the population. The
State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of
the weaker sections of society, and shall protect them from social injustice
and all forms of exploitation”. “Parliament created a
“schedule” of all the lower castes, and gave them 17.5% of the seats in
parliament and state legislatures, and 22.5% of all public-sector jobs and
guaranteed spots in public universities”. The people of the
“lower castes”, the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), and
Scheduled Tribes (STs), had begun to cherish what will help them improve their
lives in India.
Although the people of the “lower castes” had begun to
cherish this amendment, people of the “upper castes” had begun to despise what
has become to be known as the reservation system in India. There were many
faults and flaws to the reservation policy. Because the reservation system is based on the
caste system, it creates a disadvantage for the STs, SCs, and OBCs. “Majority
of the lower castes have not really benefited from India’s policy of quotas in
education and government jobs, and are relegated to the most menial of tasks, as
manual scavengers, removers of human waste and dead animals, leather workers,
street sweepers, and cobblers. The lower caste children make up the majority of
those sold into bondage to pay off debts to dominant-caste creditors”. Because of the negative impacts of the reservation
system, the policy is not as nice as it seems.
This brings out the heart of the debate, should the Parliament of India repeal
article 15 in the constitution because it promotes corruption, supports the
caste system, creates tension between religion, creates conflict between
castes, leads to deterioration of the jobs in public services, conflicts with
another amendment in the constitution, and creates moral injustice or should
the Parliament of India reserve the reservation system because it allows equal
religious representation, gives equal opportunities, the lower castes had been
victims of the caste system, lower castes receive more opportunities to prove
themselves and their caste, and since it was successful in South India in the
past?
