Private companies in India need to set aside a fixed proportion of jobs for people from marginalised sections, a statutory government panel has recommended, reviving the debate of extending employment quotas to private sector.
The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) advised enacting a legislation that would make it mandatory for private entities, including cooperative and philanthropic organisations, to reserve 27% of all hiring for people from the so-called other backward classes (OBCs).
“It has been a long-pending demand. Job opportunities in government and public sector are shrinking and it is the duty of the private sector to provide reservation to marginalised sections of the society,” NCBC member Shakeel-uz-Zaman Ansari told HT.
He confirmed that the commission forwarded the recommendation to the department of personnel and training (DoPT) and the social justice ministry.
Quotas are the rule in government jobs and schools in India with politics often holding sway over who gets benefits, while critics urge for a transition to need-based programmes that provide advantages based on economic or geographic conditions.
The NCBC, headed by Justice V Eswaraiah, has argued that the private sector does not follow “positive affirmative recruitment” policies as advocated by previous governments.
