On Monday, the Supreme Court of India affixed a judicial stamp of approval to the validity of the quota for poor members of the upper castes. Called the Economically Weaker Sections quota, the reservations of seats in educational institutions and government jobs had been effected by an amendment to the Constitution by Parliament in 2019.
Many commentators have pointed to the fundamental change the quota for the Economically Weaker Sections brings about in India’s affirmative action policy. Reservations were originally not a tool for poverty alleviation, which the state undertook using tools like welfare. Instead, they were introduced with the intention of offering representation to historically marginalised communities in elite spaces such as education, government jobs and legislatures. The quota for the Economically Weaker Sections, though, changes this, introducing economic criteria as a basis for reservations – a long-time demand from upper-caste interest groups.
This particular quota for the Economically Weaker Sections does not per se affect other reservations, since it is being carved out from the upper-caste-dominated portion of general quota seats. But many commentators fear that changing the basis for offering reservations sets up a dangerous precedent that could, one day, be used to dismantle caste-based reservations altogether.
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