India's ever-increasing reservations

A more divisive society and economic disasters ahead if reservations above 50 per cent are deemed legal by the Supreme Court

Post-independence, the provisions of Article 15 (4) of the Indian Constitution enabled reservations for the socially and educationally backward. Reservations were initially intended to last for 10 years but have been subsequently extended every 10 years. Currently, reservations for scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs) for jobs or seats in government, majority publicly-owned companies and educational institutions add up to 49.5 per cent. In January 2019, a few months before the April-May 2019 Lok Sabha elections, parliament approved an additional 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS). Separately, there are reserved constituencies for