ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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Implications of Reservations in Private Sector

The proposal to extend reservations to the private sector has generated mixed reactions. The private sector is divided on the idea. The issue may go yet again to the Supreme Court. The implications of the proposal could be that labour productivity in the private sector may decline, the undeserving among the SC/STs and OBCs may get most of the benefits as they have managed to in the public sector in the past and for the really marginalised SC/STs reservations may not mean much as they are not equipped to avail of the benefits.

Reservation for Muslims

The move by the Andhra Pradesh government to reserve positions for backward Muslims in the state has been condemned by the right wing and the liberals alike. But the issue instead calls for a renewed debate on reservation.

Dalit Question and Political Response

In the existing literature the concept of mobilisation is used to analyse electoral strategies employed by political parties to obtain votes from a section of the population - in this case dalits. This aspect has been extensively covered for both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh during the 1990s. The attempt here is to understand the response of political parties to fundamental shifts in the democratic arena in the 1990s in these two states: the decline of the single-dominant party system and the emergence of narrower political formations based on identity which has created a more competitive environment. The differential patterns of mobilisation employed by the BSP and the Congress in the two states using state power from above to put into effect programmes for dalits in order to enlarge their support base among them are examined.

Relationship of Caste and Crime in Colonial India

The discourse of caste, in many instances, cannot be constituted in separation from discourses on several other aspects of the Indian social structure. This paper, however, seeks to understand a relationship of a different order, that between caste and crime which in colonial India came to be linked in socially significant ways. Administrative discourse in colonial India sought to classify castes lower in the hierarchy and aboriginal tribes as criminal tribes and castes. Colonial administrative and metropolitan ideas and practices were thus used to classify certain groups as 'criminal'. Even as the state specified due requirements in the classification of such groups, these were prompted by broader imperatives - the consolidation of the colonial administrative edifice.

Social Background of Civil Service

Recruitment patterns in the civil services have revealed a distinct upper class, urban bias. Candidates from a rural background and from the minority communities find themselves increasingly at a disadvantage.

Deprivation of Basic Amenities by Caste and Religion

In a modern market-oriented economy, possession of basic social and physical necessities of life can be considered the basis of a dividing line of different levels of deprivation. This paper, by using consecutive NFHS data (1992 and 1999), attempts to estimate levels of deprivation based on possessions at the household level of some basic amenities of life. It examines changes in levels of deprivation, categorised as 'abject deprivation', 'moderate deprivation', 'just above deprivation' and 'well above deprivation' across Indian states and also analyses changes in terms of caste and religion.

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