The US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that race will no longer be considered a factor in college and university admissions has overturned a practice that has been in existence for several decades in the country. Affirmative action came into being in the wake of the civil rights movement of the 1960s which ended the odious practice of segregation by colour in educational institutions, shopping centres, restaurants and other public places. By a 6 to 3 majority judgment the court held that factoring race in admissions was patently unconstitutional. As expected the ruling was criticised by the Democrats including President Biden and the Obamas while the Republicans hailed the verdict with Donald Trump declaring that America can finally make progress. Affirmative action was a means to set right centuries of injustice that Blacks were subjected to in the USA. By setting aside this practice in college and university admissions, the court has in effect stalled the progress of thousands of African American and Hispanic youths. Statistics speak for themselves. African Americans are the most economically backward of communities in the US, earning substantially less than their White counterparts.
The reservation system in India too has many detractors but it is an essential tool to prop up marginalised communities like the Dalits and Scheduled Castes who for centuries faced discrimination at the hands of the upper classes. The uproar over the Mandal Commission recommendations in the 1980s come to mind as upper caste youths took to the streets to protest any increase in quota for Scheduled Castes and other backward classes. The makers of India’s Constitution led by the visionary BR Ambedkar prescribed reservations to lift up the most downtrodden. It is a system whose sell by date has not come as yet because discrimination is still rampant in urban and rural India. Till true caste equality is achieved, quotas must stay to empower the weak.
