EWS RESERVATION -AN OVERVIEW

EWS RESERVATION -AN OVERVIEW

Author:- Usaid Chowdhary, a student of Government Law College,Mumbai

January 9th  2019, the Parliament of India enacted Constitution(One Hundred and Third Amendment Act,2019) which enabled the State to make reservations in higher education and matters of public employment on the basis of economic criteria alone. The Act amended Article 15and 16 of the Constitution by inserting 15(6) and 16(6). However the critics said the EWS reservation goes against the very idea of reservation, which was meant for socially marginalised groups  such as Schedule caste (SCs) and schedule tribes (STs).The constitutionality of the amendment was challenged in the Supreme Court following which Supreme Court Constitution Bench  by 3:2 majority upheld the validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment which introduced 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in education and public employment.

There were various reasons behind passing of this act such as There are many people or classes other than backward classes who are living under hunger and poverty-stricken conditions and the proposed reservation through a constitutional amendment would give constitutional recognition to the poor from the upper castes. Moreover, it will gradually remove the stigma associated with reservation because reservation has historically been related to caste and most often the upper caste looks down upon those who come through the reservation. 

Simply put, the constitutional amendment (of 2019) lets the centre provide reservations for Economically Weaker Sections of citizens, solely on the basis of economic backwardness. And it does so by adding an additional clause both to Articles 15 (prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth) and 16 (equality of opportunity in matters of public employment) of the Indian Constitution. What this essentially entails is that the the central government can make special provisions for the progress of economically weaker citizens, including reservations in educational institutions and  Such reservation can be made in any educational institution, including private institutions (aided or unaided)but  Minority educational institutions covered under Article 30(1), however, are exempt from such reservations and The upper limit of such reservations will be ten percent, which will be in addition to existing reservations

There were also many concerns regarding this act such as there was Unavailability of data :-

• The Union or state governments have no such data to prove that ‘upper’ caste individuals, who have less than Rs 8 lakh annual income, are not adequately represented in government jobs and higher educational institutions. There is a strong possibility that they are actually over-represented in these places.

• Arbitrary Criteria:

• The criteria used by the government to decide the eligibility for this reservation is vague and is not based on any data or study.

• Even the SC questioned the government whether they have checked the GDP per capita for every State while deciding the monetary limit for giving the EWS reservation.

• Statistics show that the per capita income in states differs widely - Goa is the state having the highest per capita income of almost Rs. 4 lakhs whereas Bihar is at the bottom with Rs.40,000.

One of the major concerns was that the 10% EWS quota to “poorest of poor” among forward castes  poses danger to the Basic Structure of the Constitution. But dismissing this concern Justice Maheshwari in his judgment said that the 10% EWS quota would breach the ceiling limit of 50% on reservation. He said the 50% rule formed by the Supreme Court in the Indira Sawhney judgment in 1992 was “not inflexible”. Further, it had applied only to SC/ST/SEBC/OBC communities and not the general category. 

While the intention behind EWS reservation is noble, its implementation and impact have been a subject of debate. Some argue that it has provided opportunities to those who were previously excluded, while others question its effectiveness and potential impact on existing reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes.

Ultimately, the conclusion depends on one's perspective and the ongoing social and political discourse surrounding reservation policies in India. It's essential to continue evaluating the outcomes and addressing any shortcomings to ensure that reservation policies serve their intended purpose of promoting social justice and equality.