Pujya Gurudev Pt. Shriram Sharma’s Kripa

Employment is National Obligation It Should not be Caste-linked

(Akhand Jyoti June-July 2007)

Unemployment and reservation are the issues that are intrinsically connected with the very existence of the youth. Their importance in the lives of the young can be seen in the fact that because of these two reasons lakhs of youth are undergoing the agony of mental stress, leading to even suicide. For the government this may be a matter of mere statistics and for the politicians a means to gathering votes, but for the youth it is a matter of their life and death. The status of being unemployed torments all in equal measure irrespective of caste or creed. Statistics tell that the number of the unemployed is increasing every year and by the year 2006 it had gone to twenty crores. 

The government is spending about 200 crores every year on their registration and training but is unable to provide them employment. Out of about 5 crore applicants for government jobs only about 70000 are able to get jobs. The position of women is not much better. Out of 1 crore 7 lakhs women applicants only 27000 are able to secure employment. For this reason the people are feeling disenchanted with the government and its offices. But while the people are tired of the government, the government is not tired of the people. After all, the future governments are to be formed on the vote strength of these very people. So to appease and lure certain sections, it has raised the issue of reservation. 

The real motive behind this reservation policy is known to everybody. Howsoever the ministers and politicians may harp on social harmony, the reality is different. Social harmony comes only by believing in and practicing the dictum of "All castes and creeds are one  All humanity is one." Historically reservation for the first time was introduced in the Madras Presidency in 1918 for some select communities. 

The 1935 Poona Pact introduced reservation in the legislative bodies. When India became independent, the policy of reservation was adopted as a provisional measure. But it has continued endlessly. In 1989, V.P. Singh government accepted Mandal Commission Report on OBC reservation which had been submitted in 1980. In 1989-90 the whole country witnessed anti-reservation agitation. In 1992 the Supreme Court removed the legal hurdles in its implementation. In 1993 reservation was extended to central government services and now the present government has introduced it for admission to IITs and IIMs. There is increasing demand that reservation system be extended even to the private sector. Presently 50% and even more positions are reserved. Today a great debate is on about the pros and cons of reservation, whether it is right or wrong. Everyone has his own viewpoint on this issue, his own logic. They all may be right in one way or the other but if we scrutinize the diverse views the sum total is that the thinking horizon of almost all of them is narrow and parochial. 

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma