The central lesson of the numbers from sample surveys is that what is really needed is elementary, secondary and higher secondary education that is both of quality and affordable. That will increase the pool of reserved category students who could take advantage of reservations in higher education. This needs to be complemented with short-term measures like access to affordable coaching for professional competitive exams like the JEE, so that the poorest from the reserved categories would get the benefits. Also, the “creamy layer” among the OBCs cannot be identified only through income certificates, which can be faked easily, but through evidence-based approaches. Census, NCBC or state-level surveys should be used to continually exclude groups that have overcome social and educational deprivation from OBC lists. Without these steps being taken, reservation will not work as a tool to achieve social equity.

The writer is an assistant professor and PhD scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai express@expressindia.com