Industry bodies oppose SC, ST quota in pvt sector

Hyderabad: National industry bodies such as Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) have consistently been opposing any move to enforce job reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the private sector. They claim that such a step would adversely impact the competitiveness of corporate India.

“Competitiveness in the private sector can't be compromised at any cost. Also, we can't compromise on merit. Corporate India doesn't go by colour of the skin, caste or the last name,” CII stated in the past. Concurring with CII's views, Assocham Secretary General DS Rawat maintained that the industry body would stoutly oppose initiation of any punitive action on this contentious issue. The industry bodies maintain that private companies are more than willing to voluntarily adopt affirmative action to recruit STs/SCs in their industrial facilities. Instead of imposing reservations on private companies, government should take steps to upgrade vocational education and skills of the weaker sections to make them employable in private sector, they suggest, while underlining the need bringing changes in the education system to meet the requirements of industry.

Some industry bodies have also been doing their bit to train unemployed youth from weaker sections. Assocham developed 30 exclusive training programmes for SCs/STs, in addition to sponsoring weaker section students who are admitted into ITIs and other training institutes.

The CII has also been leading Indian industry's efforts on Affirmative Action Agenda since 2006. It identified four focus areas for development of SCs/STs. Called as 4E, the four concrete steps are education, employability, entrepreneurship and employment.