3. INTRODUCTION
• Affirmative Action is a national issue today
• Supreme Court is seized of the matter
• PMO: Committee set up on 16 Oct 2006
with Principal Secretary to the PM as the
Chairman to report within one year
• Under consideration in the Parliament
4. INTRODUCTION, contd.
• Industry and commerce associations
deeply involved
– FICCI
– CII
– ASSOCHAM
– PHDCCI
– and others
• Academic Institutions
• Media debate: ongoing
5. Triggers and straws in the wind
• Growing economic progress: sharing the
cake
• Differential development and islands of
prosperity
• Dwindling employment opportunities in
traditional avenues: government, PSU’s,
private sector
6. Triggers, contd.
• Shrinking manufacturing base:
manufacturing contributing only 17%
towards GDP as against 47% in 1990-91.
(China’s figure is 35%, Malaysia’s 31%)
• Lure of fast growing services sector,
contributing more than 35% towards GDP:
white collar AC jobs
7. Triggers, contd.
• Dependency syndrome: government
expected to play God always
• Socio-cultural baggage: least preferred
avenues – self help, entrepreneurship etc.
More of knowledge workers or processors
than knowledge creators/generators
8. Triggers, contd.
• Missed opportunities with back to the
future? Corporate social responsibility?
Community participation. Not seeing the
writing on the wall.
9. Affirmative Action - Plans
• Affirmative Action: Implies positive steps
designed to eliminate existing
discrimination, to remedy lingering effects
of discrimination and to create systems
and procedures to prevent future
discrimination. Empowering these
disadvantaged groups to realise their full
potential. It also affirms social will to rectify
unjust structures and practices and treat
everyone as equal in all respects.
10. Affirmative Action - Plans, contd.
• Innovative solutions needed to induce
private sector to perform public service
and create win-win situations
• New paradigm for responsive solutions for
environmental sustainability and social
inclusion. Inclusive social development
possible and desirable.
11. Affirmative Action, contd.
• Correcting social imbalances without
sacrificing merit. Reservations: a discount
on merit? Filling up with lesser merit?
Keep vacant for years?
• Reservation is only a subset of affirmative
action
12. Affirmative Action, contd.
• Start from basics and provide level playing
field and equality of opportunity to all
• Affirmative action helps in building national
talent pool through access to
– Quality education
– Capital and other financial resources
– Market distribution dynamics
– Employment avenues
…for all.
13. Affirmative Action, contd.
• Enhance employability through relevant
capacity building efforts and value addition
as well instead of focussing only on
employment
• Policies should be integrative and not
encouraging quarantining
14. Affirmative Action, contd.
• There should be a sunset clause for any
benefits/incentives
• Supreme court ruling (25 Oct 2006) Article
335 to be read with Article 46. Special
care and efforts to be strengthened.
15. Some Experiences
• Special efforts taken for inducting
candidates from socially disadvantaged
categories
• Wide publicity countrywide, including
regional language newspapers
• Involving associations, welfare
organisations in spreading the message
16. Some Experiences, contd.
• Waving off application fee and providing
train fare for taking exams
• Exams and interviews conducted nearest
to their place of residence
• Special recruitment drive in areas with
large population of such categories:
Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Assam etc.
17. Some Experiences, contd.
• Selection board to have at least one
member from such groups
• Interviews facilitated in regional languages
• Placement also nearest to the state of
residence
18. Some Experiences, contd.
• Special preparatory orientation for new
inductees
• In some cases, even one year’s remedial
training, fully paid, for bringing them up to
the normal knowledge and skill levels
19. Some Experiences, contd.
• No hindrance in movement to the Central
Government Services or other PSU’s.
• Integration through common training,
hostels and work teams
20. Some Experiences, contd.
• Adoption of villages, with support for
quality education through scholarships,
books and other facilities
• Support to ITI’s and other schools:
technical, managerial, material resources
in nearby areas
• Preference to students passing out of
such schools/ITI’s for apprenticeship
training
21. Some Experiences, contd.
• Multiple opportunities for upgrading skills,
placement and synergising with teams
(Cultural baggage unloading)
22. Roadmap Ahead
• Since reservation is a subset of affirmative
action with a narrow focus, a combination
of many factors will be needed to achieve
equality of opportunities and inclusive
growth and development of all citizens
23. Roadmap, contd.
• Long term employment generation and
sustainable development through
investments in infrastructure: Power,
Transportation – Railways, Road and
Ports and Communication – connectivity
24. Roadmap, contd.
• Set an irrevocable date, say 2020 for ending all
protectionist measures, move to explore all
avenues of affirmative action with utmost
sincerity backed by both positive and negative
incentives and achieve complete social
empowerment (Article 334 – 20 years (1969),
23rd Amendment 1969, 45th Amendment, 62nd
Amendment, 79th Amendment till 2010 and then
104th amendment for educational institutions)
25. Roadmap, contd.
• Multi-pronged approach including
– Education
– Capacity building
– Employability enhancement
– Entrepreneurship development
26. Roadmap, contd.
• Education: Tier 1: Primary and secondary
education, like the Kerala model: No child should
miss the opportunity for quality education. Arrest
dropout rates in some groups up to 50% at
primary level and up to 70% at secondary level
• Public-private partnership: Zero dropout target.
Industry should adopt 100 schools in each
district with significant SC/ST population
27. Roadmap, contd.
• Vocational education: Tier 2: Workforce
development - Support to ITI’s,
managerial, technical and other resources
and create centres of excellence with
active participation by industry
• Industry-institution linkages: Provide high
quality vocational education and training
and provide assured employment to a pre-
determined set of such trainees
28. Roadmap, contd.
• Higher education: Tier 3: Admission
through Multiple Index Related Affirmative
Action (MIRAA) model which was adopted
by JNU successfully for some time
• Provide scholarships, financial support,
soft loans, help for preparing for
competitive exams. (In UK, loan interest
rate is 3-4%, in the US, 5-9%, in India, 10-
13%. Payback period 10-30 years, in India
5-7 years with collateral security)
29. Roadmap, contd.
• Capacity building and skill upgradation for
the existing workforce
• Strengthen HR efforts, enhance access
and opportunities to applicants from
reserved groups
• Develop advocacy and information sharing
on various policies to ensure greater
participation in programmes for capacity
building
30. Roadmap, contd.
• Encourage entrepreneurship development
through easy access to
– Capital
– Technology
– Market distribution channels
And extend preferential terms to such
enterprises for the gestation period for
government purchases, contracts etc.
31. Roadmap, contd.
• Last Economic Census (1998) 30.4 million
enterprises, approximately 40% owned by
such groups giving employment to
approximately 84 million persons. Nearly
80% of all such enterprises were self-
financed. So focus on Entrepreneurship
Development, even for employment
generation 1:3
32. Roadmap, contd.
• Promotion of Industrial development in
districts with significant SC/ST population
(more than 40%). FICCI has identified 27
such districts. Such enterprises can be
helped with lower taxes, capital
investment subsidy, transport subsidy etc.
33. Roadmap, contd.
• Code of conduct for strict compliance by
the industry for greater inclusiveness,
concrete time-bound steps and affirmative
action without sacrificing competitiveness.
• Positive and negative incentives for strict
compliance or otherwise, monitoring by an
Apex Council like Quality Council. Non-
compliance would debar qualification for
government contracts etc.
34. Roadmap, contd.
• Self-regulation is the best regulation after
all
• Anticipate/Proactive/Adaptive strategies
for survival and growth
