Stance on Reservations in Private Domain

What is the stance of Lok Satta on reservations in the private domain?

The role of private sector is huge and has been growing rapidly in our country’s economy. We cannot simply force them to give jobs to the downtrodden classes. All they need is employees with the requisite skills. The following tasks need to be undertaken for reservations in the private sector.

• There is a need to bring in an act – ‘The Equal Opportunities Act.’ Even when there are people with skills and competence in the downtrodden classes in required numbers, if there is evidence that a private firm is discriminating, it should be slapped with a huge penalty as a deterrent to others.

• As a policy, all children of the lower castes should be given professional training in close partnership with the private sector.

• For the above to succeed, we need an estimate of how many jobs will be on offer in the next five years in different areas. This needs to be revealed from to time by the managements in the private sector.

• The civil society needs to play an active part in its implementation. As they constitute the market, they can bring pressure and boycott the products of the erring companies showing discrimination. When their revenues are at stake, private companies cannot help but fall in line.