A new twist has been added to the long-standing demand for job reservations for SC/ST youth in the private sector. “Why are youths drifting towards Naxalism? It is happening because they are not getting opportunities,” argued union minister and Lok Janshakti Party chairman, Ram Vilas Paswan. Reservation of jobs in the private sector will help cool down anger among the vulnerable SC/ST youth who are taking to extremist ideologies, he elaborated. For good measure, he added that Indian industry doesn’t seem to be bothered about the backward sections of society.
UNFORTUNATELY, job quotas in the private sector are not a magic bullet for controlling Naxalism. If this were that simple, mandatory reservations would have been a reality long ago. Left-wing extremism has proved to be intractable because the causes are manifold. It is more than the mere absence of job opportunities that accounts for the spread of this phenomenon over 150 districts in the country – where the writ of the Indian State does not extend. The Naxalites run a virtually parallel government in these areas and routinely engage the State’s law and order machinery.
The justification for job quotas for SC/ST and Dalits is that they have faced a long history of discrimination. During UPA 1 (2004-2009), there was even a dialogue between the government and representatives of India Inc on the need for affirmative action. A group of 22 ‘like-minded captains of industry’ issued a joint statement in support of measures to provide greater economic opportunities for SC/ST youth. With such assurances, the government decided not to impose a statutory obligation of reservations on industry. Indian industry felt a sense of relief but the problem hasn’t gone away.
Unfortunately, job quotas in the private sector are not a magic bullet for controlling Naxalism. If this were that simple, mandatory reservations would have been a reality long ago. Left-wing extremism has proved to be intractable because the causes are manifold. It is more than the mere absence of job opportunities that accounts for the spread of this phenomenon over 150 districts in the country – where the writ of the Indian State does not extend. The Naxalites run a virtually parallel government in these areas and routinely engage the State’s law and order machinery.
For a sense of perspective, these districts span nearly 40 per cent of India’s geographical area and account for 35 per cent of its population. The three geographically contiguous states of Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh is the theatre of action for this ‘extremist’ scenario as they sit on plentiful reserves of coal, iron ore, aluminium, manganese and so on. These are also tribal heartlands and constitute the “main battleground of left-wing extremism today,” to borrow an expression of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a speech way back in November 2004. Nothing has changed since then.
Naxalism is deeply entrenched partly due to the continuing neglect of the land question. “Naxal groups have been raising mainly land and livelihood-related issues. If land reforms are taken up on priority and the landless and the poor in the Naxal areas are allotted surplus land, this would go a long way in tackling the developmental aspects of the Naxal problem,” noted a status paper of the home ministry that was tabled in Parliament during UPA 1. This is especially relevant in states like Bihar which is one of the original bastions of left-wing extremism in the country.
According to a path-breaking study done by the 1987, 1988 and 1989 batches of IAS probationers on land reforms, the area declared surplus but not distributed is as much as 2.3 million acres in India. A good proportion of land declared as surplus is still under litigation. In Bihar, for instance, 2,217 cases were pending involving 79,000 acres. Big landlords with their access to the levers of State power were able to successfully thwart land reform. The upshot is that land to the tiller programmes and other schemes for socio-economic development is bound to have an impact on Left-wing extremism.
The Indian State’s biggest challenge, of course, is to tackle this phenomenon in the tribal belt of Orissa, Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand. To its credit, the government recognises this problem as more than a “law and order” one as Naxalites “operate in a vacuum created by the absence of administrative and political institutions, espouse local demands and take advantage of the disenchantment among the exploited segments of the population,” according to the status paper. Accelerated socio-economic development is considered imperative in the Naxal-affected areas. This assessment remains valid even now.
In this milieu, job reservations per se are unlikely to make a difference to controlling Naxalism. Instead of making it mandatory, the government is best advised to encourage India Inc to make a difference in its own self-interest. The government virtually killed the spirit of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by forcing corporates with a net worth of Rs 500 crore and Rs 5 crore in profits to invest 2 per cent of their average profits in the last three years in CSR. The revenue that it has received so far has been much less than what it thought it would rake in. It should not go this route for job reservations.
Corporates should be encouraged to invest in vocational educational facilities and skill development programmes for SC/ST youth. This can empower them to get gainfully employed in the manufacturing sector and make flagship programmes like Make in India a success. These outcomes are much better than the one suggested by the union minister who wanted class III and class IV jobs to be reserved for the weaker sections whether or not they have the skills to take up such jobs. This is not a chicken or egg situation. Skills must be imparted for the upliftment of SC/ST youth. Creating a start-up entrepreneurship culture among these weaker sections cannot come through job reservations alone.
Reservation and Naxalism are distinct problems which call for different responses. Affirmative action calls for the retreat of the State, with more space being provided to the private sector to do the needful in its own interest. Naxalism calls for a stronger State whose authority truly runs in the so-called Red corridor. The government must start governing in areas where left-wing extremists rule. Instead of leaving it to private sector CSR, it must do also its bit by improving roads, telecom and electricity generation facilities in the rural hinterlands. Only socio-economic development can address the challenge of left-wing extremism. Addressing that challenge need not be an excuse for making reservations a statutory obligation for India Inc.
(N Chandra Mohan is a Delhi-based analyst of economic and business affairs)
