IN SEARCH OF INCLUSIVE POLICY: Addressing Graded Inequality

Addressing the problem of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) through the policy of reservation of seats in the higher educational institutions by the government and subsequently passing of an Act by the Parliament has renewed the debate on reservation and related issues. This volume brings together selected and exceptionally insightful papers appeared in the journals, newspapers etc., dealing with every conceivable dimension of the reservation policy in general and for the OBCs in particular.

In their long and crispy introduction to the volume, familiarizing the lay reader with the long drawn-out and complex debate on OBC reservations, the editors have contextualised the issues of social exclusion in Indian society associated with multiple group identities like caste, ethnicity, religion, gender and other forms of exclusion. They have also indicated the theoretical framework for developing inclusive polices to deal with the consequences of historical exclusion, as well as the safeguards against continuing discrimination in the present. In the end, they have proposed that, given the multiple forms of exclusion associated with group identities, the nature of inclusive policy should be such that it addresses the group- specific problem, depending on the nature of discrimination and resultant educational, social and economic situation.

Sukhadeo Thorat is Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Chairman, University Grants Commission, Government of India. His areas of interest are agricultural development, economic institutions and development, poverty, labour, agrarian structure, caste and economic discrimination, economic problems of the marginalised groups, urban slums, human rights and social and economic ideas of Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Narender Kumar is faculty at Motilal Nehru College, University of Delhi. Apart from having authored three books, he has also written in reputed journals like “Economic and Political Weekly, Mainstream” etc., on the issues of political participation, social exclusion, and public policies vis-á-vis marginalised communities.