We witness reservations and quotas present in government jobs and educational institutions. These class-based schemes benifit the lower classes in the society providing preffered positions. The question remains; is it fair to do so?

Affirmative Action is a set of policies/measure designed by government to favour those who tend to suffer from accumulative deprivations due to unjust practices of the society. These anti-discriminatory measures favour those who would have otherwise be excluded or underrepresented.  Affirmative Action is a contentious issue in India. Questions about whether caste is a valid indicator of backwardness or not are often asked. 

Needless to say material realities in India are largely related to caste. this applies for both income and wealth but much greater in terms of wealth. The 2004 NSS data showed that SCs only owned 9% of land in comparison to the 36% owned by the rest. Indian dalits and adivasis have long been stigmatized, excluded, rejected, stereotyped and subjected to violence. Shah et al in its  2001 survey concluded that 565 villages believe untouchability has adapted to new socio-economic realities and still prevails. So to think that it is no longer present would be negligence to the real world we live in. Social exclusion of Dalits and Muslims from the work sector has long been present in the most dynamic modern sectors.In his study titled Legacy Of Social Exclusion Thorat and Attewell 'try to determine whether the likelihood of recieving a positive response from san employer differed according to whether the application was made by someone with a high caste, Muslim or Dalit'. Much of these do not account to a skill or educational gap but are mainly the result of stigma. Caste-based AA is often justified on the ground of the historic wrongs experienced by these classes. Affirmative Action then acts as a compensation of such atrocities faced by them due to which a level play ground is not established in the society.

There is a vicious circle here, due to material deprivation people from lowerer castes find it was harder to compete with elite positions. Thus, it becomes important to break the chain. Reservations will certainly erode the hold of higher castes enabling discriminated sections to come further, however even amongst the OBCs the top layers are the most prosperous. The benifits are most certainly disproportionately shared and those at the bottom hardly ever get anything out of it. The next time you think why somebody got that job or seat "easy", think twice.