Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Creamy layer

I suffered tremendous social discrimination and suppression both during my educational and social life. On many occasions, I have had to conceal the fact that I belong to a particular community for fear of discrimination. Today you can say I belong to the so-called creamy layer. My question is: why should my granddaughter, whose father is an engineer, suffer the same social discrimination as her grandfather? If the creamy layer is excluded from reservation, she will not get its benefits anyway. So why not accept her as a member of the forward community?

When our Constitution gives a person the freedom to choose his or her religion, why not allow the freedom to choose a caste? At least the second or third generation among the SCs and the STs will live a dignified and respectable life. After two or three centuries, there will be no SCs or STs in society.

K. Asokan,
Chennai

Those arguing that reservation has benefited only the creamy layer among the SCs, the STs, and the OBCs should understand that so far all the benefits of education and employment have been cornered only by the creamy layers of all castes. Since the backward sections have been excluded and discriminated against for centuries, anyone getting the benefit of reservation would appear to be a member of the so-called creamy layer.

If the irrational rhetoric of the anti-reservationists is extended, only the poorest of the poor should be permitted to study in government-subsidised schools and colleges. Logically therefore all the economically forward groups must be forced to study in private, expensive institutions. By this we will remove the creamy layer cutting across caste lines.

Sachin Singh,
New Delhi

A section of the SCs and the STs has certainly become part of the mainstream. It is only logical that the beneficiaries allow the less fortunate among them to lay claim to the benefits of reservation.

Arpitha Nair,
Thrissur, Kerala

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