Industry, states, Centre discuss alternatives to job quotas

Getting industries into area with a high population of scheduled castes and tribes, as an alternative to job quotas, was discussed here today between representatives of chambers of commerce, state governments and the Union government’s department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP).

Ajay Shankar, secretary, DIPP, was present, and the meeting was described as a useful one by those who attended it.

Discussion was held regarding ways in which the public and private sector could be involved in affirmative action without compromising on economic competitiveness.

The states of Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra welcomed the idea of incentivising industry to come into the areas in question. They said such affirmative action was more effective than across the board reservation in jobs.

These states say they have implemented schemes on these lines, such as interest subsidies, electricity and oil subsidies to industries in such areas.

“We are hopeful of further government support. The state of Chhattisgarh was especially enthusiastic of such a way of expanding the scope of affirmative action,’ said an official from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) present at the meeting.

“The concept of affirmative action is not to forgo on economic competitiveness. One has to train people from backward classes so that they can be employed.

Setting up industries in areas with a majority of SC and ST population will lead to employment of backward classes, as most employment in industries is due to local availability. Moreover, to maintain social equality, the concept of revealing one’s caste to gauge the scope of affirmative action is not sustainable,” said Ficci secretary-general, Amit Mitra, to Business Standard in an earlier interaction

Earlier, Ficci had given a set of recommendations to DIPP which identified 101 areas with more than 40 per cent of economically and socially backward classes.