New Delhi: Corporate India, led by the presidents of the country’s three biggest industry lobbies, CII, FICCI and Assocham, have told the Prime Minister’s Office that they will not be able to reserve 5 per cent jobs for people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
But the chiefs -- CII's Hari Bhartia, FICCI's Rajan Mittal and Assocham's Swati Piramal -- rejected the idea. Companies, they said, would do their best to improve employability of SCs and STs, but quotas will not serve the purpose of affirmative action.
Chamber executives who declined to be quoted said the PMO's intervention was expected because the corporate sector had earlier refrained from making any commitment to a Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) proposal pushing the case for reservation.
The DIPP had then suggested that companies enjoying government incentives may be asked to proactively tap the disadvantaged sections for meeting 5 per cent of their incremental employment needs. But corporate India saw it as the first step towards legalising a quota regime in the private sector, and shut itself to the idea. The DIPP had asked the three chambers to submit their views on the suggestion.
While chamber presidents would not come on record on the issue given the political sensitives involved, sources in the chambers said companies felt they were already doing their bit through adopting villages and supporting skill development to improve employability.
A senior CII executive said that while there may be some merit in the politicians' arguments for quotas, giving statutory backing to private sector reservations would force companies to recruit SC and ST candidates at the cost of competitiveness.
"Such a measure will endanger merit," said the executive.
Source: The Indian Express