About the Book

Policies of legal safeguards and reservation/affirmative actions in favour of discriminated groups have a tendency, globally, to generate acrimonious and heated debates. The idea of introducing reservation in the private sector has received a fair share of differing opinions in India. This volume brings representative pieces of those opinions together at one place.

The papers address some of critical issues that appeared in the current debate on reservation: Are the concerns about discrimination related only to equity or they also involve economic and political costs? How sound are the arguments against anti-discriminatory policies for private sector? Does reservation adversely affect economic efficiency and compromise merit? Or it ensures equality of opportunity for the discriminated groups and also creates economic milieu for better economic performance? In other words, are the principle of equity and canon of efficiency always at odds with each other? And, what are the possible remedies against market discrimination?

This book, by bringing together insightful perspectives from prominent academicians, opinion makers in the media, captains of the corporate world as well as politicians, reflects contemporary thinking of Indian society on a vital and contentious issue of private sector reservation. It will be helpful to the academia, government, NGOs as well as researchers and students and to all those, who are concerned about discriminations associated with caste and systematic exclusion and multiple deprivations suffered by Dalits.

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Contents

Debate on Reservation in Private Sector  /  Sukhadeo Thorat, Aryama and Prashant Negi

I : Caste and Market Discrimination: Theory and Evidences

1      Do Markets Discriminate? Some Insights from Economic Theories  /  Ashwini Deshpande

2      Caste System and Economic Discrimination: Lessons from Theories  /  Sukhadeo Thorat

3      Public-Private Divide and Affirmative Action in India  /  Aryama

4      Social Exclusion and Discrimination in Hiring Practices: The Case of Indian Private Industry  /  T.S. Papola

5      Caste Discrimination in the Indian Urban Labour Market  /  S. Madheswaran

II : Reservation and Equal Opportunity Perspective

6      Reservation in the Private and the Corporate Sector  /  Gail Omvedt

7      Affirmative Action in the Private Sector: Need for a National Debate  /  Prakash Louis

8      Is Reservation in the Private Sector Warranted?  /  Rajindar Sachar

9      Reservation in the Private Sector: Legislation in Maharashtra  /  P.G. Jogdand

10    Myths about Private Sector Reservation  /  Chandrabhan Prasad

11    All Snakes, No Ladders: Affirmative Action in the Private Sector  /  Prashant Negi

III : Reservation, Merit and Efficiency

12    Reservation and Efficiency: Myth and Reality  /  Sukhadeo Thorat

13    Reservations: Towards a Larger Perspective  /  D. Parthasarathy

14    Mythologies of Merit  /  Gail Omvedt

15    Affirmation without Reservation  /  Pratap Bhanu Mehta

16    Captain, a Hole in Your Argument  /  Bibek Debroy

17    Quotas for Companies  /  André Béteille

18    Reservation: A Rational, Ritualistic Placebo  /  G. Ramachandran

19    Keep Demanding the Impossible  /  Arun Maira

20    Wanted: A Working Class Revolution  /  T.K. Bhaumik

21    Is Reservation in the Private Sector Warranted?  /  Amit Mitra

22    Job Reservation in the Private Sector  /  Satish Kumar Jhunjhunwala

23    Reservations: Devoid of Merit  /  Rahul Bajaj

IV : Globalisation, Liberalisation and Reservation

24    Liberalisation and Dalits  /  Sukhadeo Thorat and Martin Macwan

25    Globalisation and Affirmative Action  /  Thomas E. Weisskopf

26    New Agenda for the Dalits  /  Pratap Bhanu Mehta

27    Reservation in the Private Sector: An Overview of the Proposition  /  Anand Teltumbde

28    Globalisation and Reservation  /  G. Thimmaiah

29    On Reservations, a Wake-up Call  /  Kancha Ilaiah

V : Reservation and Politics of Caste

30    The ‘Creamy Layer’: Political Economy of Reservations  /  Pradipta Chaudhury

31    Reservations about Reservation  /  Neera Chandhoke

32    Social Justice and Reservation Scheme  /  K. Veeramani

33    Job Quotas in the Private Sector  /  P. Radhakrishnan

VI : Remedies against Discrimination

34    Remedies Against Market Discrimination: International Experience  /  Sukhadeo Thorat

35    Reservations in Private Sector: Drawing Lessons from the US  /  Ellora Puri

36    Why There Should Be Job Reservation  /  R. Jagannathan

37    Make them Entrepreneurs Instead  /  R. Vaidyanathan

38    Reservations Again  /  Pratap Bhanu Mehta

39    Extending Reservations  /  Dipankar Gupta

40    In the Face of Job Reservations  /  Surjit S. Bhalla

41    Diversity Doesn’t Mean Reservation  /  Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar

42    Legal Remedies Against Discrimination in USA, South Africa and India  /  Raja Sekhar Vundru

43    Some Aspects of Reservation in Higher Education  /  Thomas E. Weisskopf

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About the Author / Editor

Sukhadeo Thorat is Professor of Economics, centre for the study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Chairman, University Grants Commission, Government of India. He has written extensively on problems of Dalits, caste discrimination, Ambedkar’s economic thinking, human rights issues, agriculture development, rural poverty and problem of slums. He has, to his credit, ten books and about fifty articles published in national and international journals.

Aryama is Lecturer in Political Science, Sri Guru Tegh Bhadur Khalsa College, University of Delhi.

Prashant Negi is Assistant Professor, Dr.K.R. Narayanan Centre for dalit and Minorities Studies, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi.

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