I might have to start this with a rainy day. When everything seems to come a little closer.
Huddling under one roof in a roadside tea stall and drinking tea reminds me of that
closeness. It clears the place. It always does. As if reminding us: stay within the area you
have built for yourself. Don’t come under ours, or we will drench you, threatening you
with every thunder strike. Keep your distance.
I always wondered what it is to feel rain from different situations? Does it bring the same
pleasure and nostalgia to a house with leakage in its roof? Do they romanticize the sound
of rain, rumbling of thunder? Maybe they do romanticize summer more than rain, because
it causes them less trouble. And as far as my memory goes, I can remember we always
romanticized both and so cursed. We cursed rain when it was heavy and spontaneous, we
cursed summer when it was long and melting.
So, this observation taught me that there are different effects of a single act, or in other
words a single act can cause different effects on different levels of the society.

Now we can argue about whether we should have a reservation system in India or not. I
support everyone’s willingness to do so, but before that, can you answer me: is India
really a caste-free country? Are we all on a fair ground when we are questioning about a
fair fight? Coming up with rifles and canons and fighting against someone with swords
and lathis, we are talking about fair fights. Casteism has deep roots. Go anywhere; you
can find it. A corporate officer thinks the office boy is one step down, the office boy
thinks the watchman is one step down, the watchman thinks the sweeper is one step
down, and the sweeper thinks the toilet cleaner one step down. It’s an endless cyclic
pattern fueled by the feeble pride everyone holds within themselves to sit higher on a
ladder. Unfortunately, that’s how it’s. To love a person from other caste is itself a
revolution and a political act, and to marry is a success, no doubt.
I don’t want a country defined by different castes. But also, I cannot unsee when a Dalit
was beaten to death for entering a temple. I believe in equality. But I cannot close my
eyes when your belly is full and the people with whom you are talking about equality are
starving to death. When you have qualified from a central government school (English
medium) and those with whom you are talking about equality is from an old, shabby state
government school with low confidence and poor English. It takes a lot to come out of a
place like that.
I would suggest everyone who is against reservation look around themselves and do a
little research, because social media knowledge is often dangerous.

If they think this reservation system is giving a very unfair advantage to the people from
SC, ST, and other backward class, I would suggest that you survey your office or, if you
are a government employee, then your department to look for how many SC, ST, or other
backward class people are actually working there. You will get your answer by yourself.
According to NSSO (National Sample Survey Office), 44.0% of Scheduled Castes (SC)
are casual or daily labor and 20.5% have salaried regular jobs; 46.5% of Scheduled Tribes
(ST) are casual or daily labor, and 18.0% have salaried regular jobs; and in the General
Category (Others), 5.9% are casual or daily labor, whereas 44.5% have salaried regular
jobs. There is nothing to hide, and everything is in front of your eyes. Just try a little to
know about the country and about the people in this country. Don’t always rely on
social media knowledge and propaganda. This is basic data distribution I talked about;
there is a lot more. If you go through the data on SC and ST salaried employees, you will

get to know a lot more about discrimination. There only 14.2% of top executive, decision-
making, and administrative (GROUP A) government office jobs are held by SCs, and only

6.54% by STs. In contrast, over 36% of those working as Central Government sanitation
or lower-tier clerical support staff are SCs, meaning a large chunk of the “regular salaried”
percentage still falls into lower-income categories.
So, this reservation system is a much-needed thing to uplift the majority of people in
India. This system tries to give everyone a fair ground to fight, at least. Definitely, we
have not succeeded in it; you can see that by the data. As knowledgeable, educated youth
of India, we should know our people; we should know the state they are living in. We
should work towards levelling the ground for all, not to snatch their basic rights to live
with.

I myself come from the SC community. I know the struggle you have to encounter in day-
to-day life. At least I am in a fairly better condition than others. I have my belly full

twice a day; think of those who fight for these two meals every day. I know the struggle.
You always have to fight for everything - for food, education, money, equality,
opportunity everything. There is nothing that comes to these people easily. Their bed is
not full of roses. Their belly is not full of food. There life is not full of opportunity.
We really cannot fight with old peoples whose minds are already carved out by wrong
information, but we, the youth of India, can change these stereotypes. We have the
power to create a better future for us and to give a caste-free India, by all means, to our
next generations.
I have an incident to share. I got admission in Murshidabad College of Engineering &
Technology. It’s in the Murshidabad district West Bengal and I live in South 24 P.G.S.
So, my college is approximately 200 K.M away from my home.

I was going to college with my father by train to settle down in the college Hostel for the
next four years. It was 2021. We were sitting beside the window, and a woman in her late
thirties was sitting in front of us. My father and she started talking about where we were
going, and where we came from, and many other things. She asked my name. And
probably she got an idea of my caste by my surname. Then she described some horrifying
incidents that had happened to Dalits in colleges and schools and how concerned she was.
Then she suggested that I not disclose my caste in my college to avoid any kind of
discrimination, and my father took her statement as a concern for my safe and stable four
years away from home. And finally, he also suggested that I not disclose it. Maybe,
somehow, I subconsciously tried no to disclose my Identity as an SC.
But my college teachers, my friends, and everyone around me proved the aunty and my
father wrong. I never faced anything from anyone. I think of those days with such honor
and pride. I believe with the whole of my heart that this is India. This is how India should
be, and this is the generation that will make the India like my four years in the hostel.