The citizens of a civilised society will get a sense of justice when they are entitled to equal opportunity in all the organs of the state. For every state to accelerate its development, it should ensure equal participation of all the citizens in all state organs irrespective of their gender, caste, ethnicity/race, language, religion, and geo/political status.
For any underdeveloped or developing state where there is no equal participation of all the citizens in all organs of government, reservations for backward and marginalised communities can be used as a tool to ensure equal participation. To achieve the intended goals, reservation policies must be part of a comprehensive strategy that addresses broader inequalities and undergoes periodic evaluation and refinement. So does reservation work?
Reservation as a tool of social inclusion
Reservation is one of the tools of social inclusion which was adopted by Nepal as a policy in 2007. If we dig down the history of the practice of reservation, the then prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa planned to reserve 35 per cent of civil service posts: women would constitute 20 per cent, Dalits 10 per cent, and Janajati (indigenous) 5 per cent and have also formed a committee to implement the reform, but due to political and governmental instability, it was not executed.
After a series of attempts by many governments, the reservation policy was introduced in the interim constitution, which for promulgated after the People’s Movement of 2006. Additionally to this, the second amendment of the Civil Service Act, of 2007 introduced 45 per cent reservations for disadvantaged groups.
The constitution of Nepal 2015 has ensured the equal participation of all marginalised people in state organs.
Article 42 of the constitution states: “The socially backward women, Dalit, indigenous people, indigenous nationalities, Madhesi, Tharu, minorities, persons with disabilities, marginalised communities, Muslims, backward classes, gender and sexual minorities, youths, farmers, labourers, oppressed or citizens of backward regions and indigent Khas Arya shall have the right to participate in the state bodies on the basis of inclusive principle.”
However, the practice seems to reveal something different.
Time for need and ethnicity-based system
The concept of reservation which was introduced with an aim to ensure the involvement of marginalised communities has not been enforced in the same manner, also evidenced by various facts and figures.
First, reservation undermines the concept of equality among all people on the lines of gender and ethnicity/caste, and therefore might not be aligned with Nepal’s constitutional right to equality for all. On the other hand, the reserved seats and services for backward communities have been “occupied” by the creamy layer of each of the cluster groups.
As of the data of the Economic Survey 2020/2021, a total of 53,470 people have entered various government services in the last 10 years. Out of these 59.49 per cent of people have been selected from the open competition and 40.5 per cent have been selected by using the facilities of reservation.
However, if you deeply look into society, the reserved seat for backward people is mainly occupied by the same community’s creamy layer. The result is not as shown in the numbers by the different surveys of government reports.
The judiciary has also been working to make optimum use of reservation policy for the inclusion of all the people of backward communities. For instance, the Supreme Court rendered a decision stating that in a sensitive sector like health, where every citizen needs to rely on their health, the system should be handled by competent human resources, providing opportunities to incompetent in the name of social inclusion will degrade the health service of the country.
It further explains that, a person who is provided with a reserved seat in the bachelor’s level. To award the reservation seat of postgraduate to the same person will be against the principle of equality, which will further dent the gap between the citizen of the society.
They achieve the optimum benefit from the reservation policy for social inclusion. The system shall be based on “need” rather than “ethnicity”. If the reservation policy has been based on the need then the real needy person of the community will get the benefit.
