http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandorav3/out ... d1187.aspx
Isn't this ridiculous ? What do you guys think about? I can live with reservation in educational institutions, govt. sectors..but to expand it to private sector seems politically motivated.. Reservation started off as noble idea and was not expected to "stay" indefinitely .. started off for a period of 10 years and has been extended since then.. And instead of slowly withdrawing reservation, we are now expanding it? Isn't that ridiculous.. The problem with the currently flawed reservation system is that it will never attain its original goal.. Social Equality.. Even if we extend reservation to private sector, majority of people belonging to Scheduled caste/tribe are going to remain impoverished and below the poverty line..
Especially in tamilnadu, where we have 70% reservation in educational institutions, I will not be surprised if the dravidian parties take advantage of this opportunity and make it mandatory for private companies operating in tamilnadu to have reservation (may be even 70%).. They don't care if the private companies take their company to other states..
Usually articles in MSN don't stay long, so I have posted the entire article here,
Spectre of job reservation haunts Indian industry
Source: - By Amulya Ganguli, IANS. Image Source: AFP
Indian businessmen are gradually waking up to the possibility of their worst nightmare coming true - the reservation of jobs in the private sector for disadvantaged groups.
Virtually throughout the history of industrialization and private enterprise in India, the corporate sector never had to deal with a question of this nature, with its clear links, first, with politics and, more importantly, with its focus on the till now unassailable right of all entrepreneurs to employ only those they chose.
Not even during the worst days of the licence-permit raj, when the government controlled the "commanding heights of the economy", had there been any move to modify the criteria of employment. Nor did the most militant of trade unions show any interest in such matters.
It is not a little ironical, therefore, that at a time when the scaffoldings of a controlled economy are being dismantled and the government is singing the praises of liberalisation and globalisation while looking for investment, the political class is moving determinedly to persuade the industrialists to open the gates of their factories and establishments to specially identified sections of employees, viz. those belonging to the scheduled castes (SC) and the scheduled tribes (ST).
The reason for this intervention in the recruitment policies of the private sector has been explained in a letter sent to industry associations by the social justice department. It has pointed out that this new initiative is being taken to provide the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe youths "with assured avenues of employment" - a step which has become necessary "because of the perception that with disinvestment in the public sector, the number of opportunities in the public sector is declining".
Since the "future engine of expansion and growth of employment is the private sector", it should "carry with it the marginalized sector of society" by assuming "its social responsibilities". In the words of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the introduction of the quota system in the private sector is now "an idea whose time has come".
True, no legal steps have been envisaged so far. All that the government has done is to set up a ministerial committee under Agriculture Minister and senior political leader Sharad Pawar to consider the issue. It has also asked the corporate sector to communicate its views. There are also a few grey areas. For instance, will the reservations be introduced in the Special Economic Zones, where the investors are expected to have greater freedom of action than elsewhere? And what will be the government's response if the foreign companies let it be known that they will take their money elsewhere for investment - to China, for instance - if job reservations are introduced?
