This, not reservations, is the answer…

…to upliftment and betterment of Dalits, backwards and Muslims…

From the Time of India, 7th Dec ’06 (article by Subodh Ghildiyal):

“Tectonic shift: Dalits find new vistas in private sector” Excerpts:

“NEW DELHI: Jhumur Das sits with a telephone in a Kolkata building and dishes out advice to callers from cities she has only heard about. She is a customer care executive with Aegis BPO.

Nothing surprising. Except that the young graduate, from an extremely modest Dalit family, left Hooghly a few months ago to stay alone in the crowded capital and be a career woman. In what could mark a trend shift in professional choices of backward classes, SC, OBC and minority youngsters — taught since independence to avail the quota to enter government jobs — are taking a definitive turn towards the private sector.

…The social justice ministry has tied up with NIIT to provide training for BPO jobs to those from backward groups. Out of the initial batch of 355 students, 116 like Jhumur have started working in the BPO sector. The response has seen the scheme extended beyond six cities to Chandigarh, Shimla, Pune and Jaipur.

The success has encouraged the ministry to explore other avenues. Airlines are next on the radar. Sources said the Centre may fund states in coaching girls and boys from these groups as air hostesses and stewards. It is seeking to build up on the experience of Karnataka. The issue will be deliberated by the ministry soon.

…Significantly, an official said, the idea was to look for sectors where wages and growth is good but not incumbent on academics. “Education remains an issue and while it has to go up, it should not handicap this generation of job seekers,” he said.

For sociologists, this shift, though in a nascent stage, is significant for reasons beyond professional. BPO, Hospitality sector etc are part of urban job centres which can help people in overcoming birth-based handicap when many laws have failed.