For An Open Territory

Around seven years ago, India Inc solemnly swore that it would bring affirmative action to the corporate sector. The commitment was made to foster an inclusive workforce and encourage greater diversity among suppliers providing goods and services within Indian industry. Corporate India also undertook to report to the government periodically on how far they have come in making workplaces more culturally diverse.

The reporting is being done on a quarterly basis to the Union ministry of commerce and industry, which spearheads the initiative. A yearly meeting is held with the Prime Minister’s Office as well, to share details of progress. The effort is entirely voluntary, meaning that, as long as the steps are considered adequate, the government holds off on framing a legislation to enforce affirmative action in the private sector.

The compulsory reporting, with the onus of affirmative action on the firms themselves, is a relief to India Inc. This is because, right after the 2008 global financial crisis, every time India Inc talked of “rightsizing”, the then principle secretary in the PMO, Pulok Chatterjee, would fire a pro-reservation salvo at industry bigwigs in Mumbai and Delhi. Even politically, the threat of an overarching legislation always loomed.

Now, in the age of agitating Patels grabbing headlines and dominant groups like the Marathas actually securing reservations, the issue of broader diversity in the corporate sector by including more Dalit and Scheduled Tribe or Scheduled Caste employees and suppliers, has taken a back seat. Much of it has to do with the change of regime at the Centre.

“We are awaiting focus of the new government to return to this issue again,” says Saugata Choudhury, who heads the initiatives for skills and affirmative act­ion at CII, which has taken the lead in this matter on behalf of its members. The model for their initiatives is based on affirmative action as practised in the US, and is geared around the “Four Es”—education, employment, employability and entrepreneurship.

“Actually, industry was mandated to champion affirmative action voluntarily around seven years ago,” says Choudhury. “We have been reporting back on our initiatives, but there has been a loss of focus as the new government acquaints itself with the subject. We would like to see it come back to attention,” he says.

Many of India Inc’s initiatives are being worked out in tandem with DICCI, or the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Projects worth Rs 500 crore last year came to Dalit entrepreneurs beca­use of the supplier diversity efforts of Indian corporates,” says Milind Kamble, who heads the DICCI. “The figure could be larger, but it is certainly growing,” he says.

DICCI supports several CII-led efforts, one of which aims to bring jobs-oriented education to rural and tribal areas. The process is slow, as no other chamber of indu­stry is actively involved. “It’s not like the government has not been doing anything on the diversity front,” Kamble points out. He men­­tions the initiatives taken by this government to reach out to the backward clas­ses, namely, the Aug­­ust 15 announcement by PM Modi that banks should nurture SC and ST entrepreneurs, the announcement of a SC ven­­­­ture capital fund and a new credit gua­rantee scheme for backward community entrepreneurs.

Equals Modi meets a delegation of Dalit entrepreneurs

The VC fund allows Dalit entrepreneurs to access up to Rs 15 crore from the government as debt. The credit guarantee fund will provide up to Rs 5 crore to new ventures and their micro, small and mini ventures will get upto Rs 87 lakh. “Affirmative action aside, these steps are also not to be scoffed at,” Kamble says, adding, “On affirmative act­­ion, dialogue has started between us and the government.” Kamble met PMO officials on September 18 for talks on how more Dalit-owned firms can become suppliers to corporates, and on developing skill-sets among Dalit youth matching industry expectations.

The CII says it is scaling up efforts, but would like to see the “old speed and ene­rgy” on the government’s part. They would like to continue to focus on skills development, education and entrepren­eurship, as part of which four years ago it earmarked Cooch Bihar in West Ben­gal, among 15 other districts, where tra­ining centres are being set up. “To be honest, India being a vast country, our efforts are a drop in the ocean. We are not very happy,” says Choudhury.

One reason for unhappiness is that neither government nor industry have come up with scalable models for affirmative action. The focus has boiled down to skill development and supplier diversity—so far so good—but no blueprint on affirmative action has emerged. Even the Congress-led UPA did not frame an affirmative action plan. It only made noises about “enforcing reservation”.

“We see cynical political calculations, rather than objective assessments of what’s required to accommodate the late-starters in our society,” says D.L. Sheth, an honorary senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi. A member of the National Commission for Backward Classes in the early 1990s, Sheth has argued that affirmative action in the private sector is a valid policy to adopt, but that such a policy cannot simply reproduce the present reservation policy that applies to government jobs and educational institutions. “One shouldn’t even call it ‘reservation’ in the private sector, but a means to bring about cultural diversity—nobody has the patience for thinking these things through,” he says.

In the wake of the Patel stir, drawing room debates now ask why only Dalits, Scheduled Castes and Sch­­eduled Tribes get reservation when there  are poor Brahmins too. Oste­nsibly, this debate revolves around government jobs, but below the surface, it raises questions about the very validity of reservation for backward sections. It raises the prickly issue of offering reservation on economic, rather than caste, criteria.

“After this government came to power, there’s not a word on private sector affirmative action. Also, no editorials, no headlines, and no private or public statements from the political parties despite massive caste-based agitations for reservation. It’s sad that nobody talks about this need of our society,” says Chandra Bhan Prasad, a Dalit rights activist.

The private sector reservation idea, once appealing, appears to be in cold storage in the era of competitive politics. “Indians just don’t seem to understand this basic idea that unless you create a good society you cannot build a good nation,” says Prasad.

The cold reality is that new jobs are too few to accommodate the 10-lakh job-­see­kers hitting India’s pavements mon­thly. “Even if India Inc brings in res­­ervation, without equality in opportunity, there is no chance of every section of society getting equal access to jobs, to business or to education,” points out Ajit Ranade, chief economist, Birla Group. There is just way too much unemployment to be tackled by force of government writ. Obviously forgotten is the role India Inc can play in bringing about the constitutional vision of equal opportunity.