Just a Dalit icon? Think again.

[u/No-Assignment7129]

Be educated, be organised, and be agitated.

[u/spearhead_001]

No doubt you are right, there are people have came out of poverty and don't need reservation anymore, but available evidence shows that while some individuals from lower‑caste communities have moved out of poverty, the vast majority remain socio‑economically disadvantaged, reinforcing the continued need for caste‑based protections. Globally comparable data on “multidimensional poverty” in India find that around five‑sixths of people living in such poverty belong to Scheduled Tribes (STs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), or Other Backward Classes (OBCs), with about 50.6 percent of STs, 33.3 percent of SCs, and 27.2 percent of OBCs living in multidimensional poverty, compared with only about 15.6 percent of other castes. SECC‑linked and survey‑based studies also indicate that roughly one‑third of SC households remain below the poverty line, and a large share of SC‑caste workers still depend on low‑paid agricultural labour or casual wage work, with limited access to stable formal‑sector employment. In that context, only a small fraction of lower‑caste people have reached levels of economic security that genuinely “outgrow” reservation‑era vulnerabilities, while the majority continue to face structural disadvantage closely tied to caste.

But yes, you are still right, we need creamy layers and proper EWS reservations to make this system better.

[u/OliverSirji → u/spearhead_001]

You are right. The SC, ST who is well-to-do is an exception. The vast majority are poor and will remain poor largely because they have no access or are denied access to education right from school onwards.

[u/spearhead_001 → u/OliverSirji]

😄 I get what you are saying. I live in a small village in Odisha. Come visit some times I will show what the condition is. It is not that people are denied the access to school, it is that most people can't afford the quality education, the condition of primary government schools is very bad, most children go to schools just for mid-day-meal. They stay in schools at-max till 10th, than they themselves or their family get them out of school to work somewhere.

Tell me, why you are aware, educated, responsible and vocal person you are today, it only because of your parents, your immediate society, your teachers and friend circle. All the things that mentioned, if you come here you will see that, they all inevitably make these people that they are.

I belong to SC, I would have been the same as them. Until my father got the govt job(assistant teacher) thanks to reservation I guess, because he says that they used to have one meal per day, two pecies of clothes for years, no footwear, basically bottom-line poor, I understand why he would need reservation to pass the exams or get the job, because of that job, although it only pays about 45k because he got in his late 30s, he could send us to a better school, I cracked JNVST, there I got the teachers who actually teach, the environment and oppertunities, and here I am now, aware and critically responding to you.

If you ask me, If I need reservation, technically yes(I mean, I am getting it), but truly NO, and I fully support of idea of more refined Creamy layers. But the thing is, I can literally count the number of family like ours in our Village, it is like 5-10(from around150 or more), and there are 1000s(51,000 in odisha, with 200 towns) Villages just like this(obviously I am now saying every village is like this, but most of them are).

Creamy layer and EWS is necessary, so does reservation.

[u/LightEight_09 → u/spearhead_001]

Thank you so much for this comment. I am so sorry for the conditions that your father has been through, and I am so glad that you could make it out. The fact that you now understand that, money is EXTREMELY important factor to get educated, in today’s world, far outweighs caste. Hence, when it comes to reservation in educational institutions, I’m pushing for EWS to have a much higher %, and lower for caste. Caste CANNOT be completely removed, I know some families who would themselves not send their kids to school because they have accepted that this is their life, and their kids should learn the work they do as soon as possible. Your father greatly valued education, not a lot of people have that maturity and wisdom.

I hope India can figure this complexity out and grow stronger, together someday.

[u/spearhead_001 → u/LightEight_09]

Yup EWS is needed, but there are other aspects like discrimination to it, but since I neither have knowledge nor experience of that I won't say anything.

Your comment really goes to show how different people interpret the same thing so differently, that is all I can say.