India runs the world's oldest and one of the most comprehensive affirmative action policies in the form of reservations or quotas for its disadvantaged sections. Ever since its adaptation, this critical public policy remains the most controversial and polarising public policy that the Independent India has adopted as yet. While much of the national preoccupation over reservation have been devoted to debate its necessity and relevance in addressing exclusion and inequality, the country still seems to lack a data-based understanding of its enforcement across different domains. How earnestly state and its agencies have enforced the reservation policies? We know less about the trends of implementation in different domains and how or what percentage of population among these social groups have benefited from it. Fact is there are very few credible research studies on the issue of affirmative policies in India. 

This publication is an attempt to fill some of the void by compiling data on key domains of reservation policy apart from flagging crucial issues relating to linkages among the three key domains of reservations, namely, higher education, employment, and political representation. A comparison of all three domains in terms of implementation of reservation policies, across different time periods (e.g., pre- and post-Mandal phases) and among different regions, provides useful insights about these linkages. In doing so, the work throws some critical insights on the processes at work, and identifies areas for further research.

Niranjan Sahoo is a Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi and a Visiting Fellow with University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a recipient of ASIA Fellow Award. He has more than eight years of research experience in dealing with diverse political economy and governance issues pertaining to India. At ORF, he has been specialising on number of public policy issues particularly power sector reforms, public services delivery, local government and political economy. Affirmative action and issues of access and inclusion are some of his current concern. Currently, he is undertaking an extensive review of various affirmative options available in private sector in the world. 

His most recent publication was a monograph on “Politics of Power Sector Reforms in India”. Other than policy analysis, he has worked extensively with number of national level civil society organisations on issues of social equity and inclusion. He also regularly contributes to national dailies and current affairs journals.