SHILLONG, JUNE 18: The Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR) has proposed that a ‘Deprivation Point System’ should be adopted with the reservation policy.

Submitting its suggestions to the Expert Committee on the State Reservation Policy on Monday, TUR said, “This deprivation point would be based on both the individual’s family background as well as where she is from and where she has been educated? These deprivation points can be calculated every five years based on district wise developmental data.”

“So, for example, a first generation girl learner, whose parents are not government servants and who from an underdeveloped district and has studied in local vernacular school and college would get certain points that shall elevate her chances of getting the job compared to someone who may belong to her tribe but is a child of a Grade A officer and has studied in Shillong in expensive private school,” it said while adding that in the age of Big Data this exercise of deprivation points within the existing reservation quota can be easily implemented.

TUR said that the recent demands to review (and change) Meghalaya Reservation Policy has opened up a Pandora’s box of grievances. On one side are some who see the Review as a Zero-Sum game of communities, where one community’s gain would be another community’s loss.

On the other hand are those who don’t want to upset the status quo because the tenuous and fragile community relations that make up Meghalaya are threatened.

TUR said it believes that in a democracy public policy should not be a zero-sum game or jockeying for community pride, especially when it comes to Reservation Policy / Affirmative Action.

“Affirmative action constitutionally is not about numerical representation but about transcending historic power imbalances and deprivation so as to have a more egalitarian future. The privileged (numerical or otherwise) have always found affirmative action problematic because they believe in immutability of hierarchies and privileges. They see society as a place where only the meritorious powerful survive. STs and SCs always faced this scorn of reservation and this similar attitude should not be encouraged in Meghalaya between the communities,” it said.

“In a democracy it is important to subject public policy to people’s scrutiny. But this people’s scrutiny cannot be based on mere subjective perception or majoritarian emotional impulses but has to be evidence based and constitutionally tenable and be ready to acknowledge conflicting responses in the society. Scrutiny has to respect historical context as well as historical compact between the diverse groups of people that constitute the citizenry,” it added.

Further, TUR said it believes that a democratic state ought to privilege its weakest and most deprived and our suggestions regarding Meghalaya Reservation Policy is not about reworking of the 40/40/5 formula but about the outcomes and realities of the functioning of the reservation policy after fifty years of Meghalaya’s statehood.

“We also think that without historically contextualising the Meghalaya Reservation Policy 1972, we would not be able to understand and think through various claims and counterclaims about it.

Objectivity demands that any claim and counterclaim about the policy should be substantiated with evidence, both in terms of data and its legal validity.”it said.

“Our comments/suggestions are therefore not about making demands for change or for a status quo but about the methodology and evidence available for review as well as to look at some newer ideas to deepen affirmative action policies in the state so as to create a future for Meghalaya that is egalitarian and empathetic,” it stated while adding that TUR wants a Meghalaya where communities and individuals are not engaged in the winner and loser contest but are working together for a peaceful, just and developed state.

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