Reservations about EWS: Govt must focus on expanding opportunities

It is unclear how far the state can fulfil its obligations to EWS families when more jobs are created in the private sector

The Supreme Court’s 3:2 verdict upholding the 10 per cent quota for government jobs and seats in educational institutions for economically weaker sections (EWS) has opened a new dynamic in the discourse over affirmative action in India. The three judges of the five-judge Bench who argued in favour of the 103rd constitutional amendment, which Parliament had passed in January 2019, have said that the quota does not violate the basic structure of the Constitution, a pronouncement that has attracted dissent from two other judges. A law introducing an economic criterion into reservation quotas for families that earn less than Rs