Are reservations the best way to ensure better representation of socially disadvantaged groups? Are there studies showing their efficacy?
Yes, it is true that the disadvantaged should have access to high quality primary education. Yes, imaginative solutions should be found to overcome the centuries-old practice of caste-based discrimination, but none of this precludes reservation as a corrective measure. Reservations cannot take the place of comprehensive societal changes, but they constitute a very important, necessary step in the process of compensating for centuries of discrimination. Reservations promote integration in the upper strata of society — by increasing the access of highly disadvantaged and under-represented communities to elite occupations and decision-making positions. In this manner, reservations result in greater empowerment of hitherto disadvantaged communities. A study on the impact of three decades of reservations in higher education for the SC/ST community in India[8] shows that “reservation policies at all levels of higher education both redistribute SC and ST students upward in the university qual
