Q.Policies of affirmative action for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should be extended to admission to private educational institutions.

Reservation policy for SC/ST communities was designed mainly for government-run institutions, but a growing share of professional education now happens in private institutions. …

For extending the policy: the case for reservation policy in general rests on the fact that Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were historically subjected to systematic exclusion and discrimination, and cannot be expected to immediately compete with others on equal terms. As the chapter notes, private educational institutions have become an increasingly important route into good professional careers — and poorer or deprived students already struggle to access this route because of high fees and the cost of coaching. If affirmative action applies only to government institutions, a large and growing share of real opportunity would sit entirely outside its reach, undermining the very purpose reservation policy was designed to serve.

Against extending the policy: critics of reservation policy in general argue that any quota system is a form of "reverse discrimination," denying other individuals their own right to be judged on merit. Extending reservations to PRIVATE institutions raises an additional, distinct concern about institutional autonomy — private institutions are typically established and funded independently of government, and mandating their admissions policy could be seen as government overreach into institutions that receive no direct public funding. …