Despite comprehensive policies for equity and social justice, underprivileged sections are not yet getting the full benefits of affirmative action envisaged by the Constitution. Comment.

Introduction

The Constitution envisages substantive, not merely formal, equality: Articles 15(4) and 16(4) enable reservation in education and public employment, Article 46 directs the State to promote the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections, and Articles 330, 332 and 243D reserve political representation. These are buttressed by scholarships, the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Stand-Up India and dedicated sub-plans. Yet outcomes remain visibly short of the vision.

Why Full Benefits Have Not Reached the Underprivileged

• Intra-group capture: benefits are cornered by the relatively better-off within beneficiary groups; the Justice Rohini Commission found a small cluster of OBC castes taking a large share of quota benefits.
• Weak foundations: poor-quality schooling means few candidates from the most deprived families ever reach the thresholds at which reservation operates.
• Shrinking arena: reservation applies to government jobs and seats, but public employment is stagnant amid contractualisation and privatisation, and large backlogs of reserved posts remain unfilled.
• Asset poverty untouched: quotas do not address landlessness or credit exclusion; land reform and Dalit-Adivasi entrepreneurship have lagged.
• Continuing discrimination: rising atrocities recorded by NCRB, persisting manual-scavenging deaths and social boycotts blunt formal guarantees.
• Leaky delivery: delayed post-matric scholarships and diversion of SC/ST sub-plan funds weaken implementation on the ground.

Way Forward

• Sub-classification within quotas — upheld in State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh (2024) — to reach the most deprived layers.
• Time-bound filling of backlog vacancies, quality public schooling under NEP 2020, and extending affirmative action to skills, credit and procurement (4% public procurement from SC/ST enterprises).

Conclusion

Affirmative action has created a significant first-generation middle class among the underprivileged, but its constitutional promise will be redeemed only when representation is matched by redistribution of capabilities — education, assets and everyday dignity.