http://latasinha.wordpress.

com/tag/is-it-an-affirmative-action-program/ Reservation or Affirmative Action Program is one such policy, which has the following three goals:

To remove social and religious disabilities of the deprived people, on account of their social segregation and cultural isolation. To facilitate and promote equal participation of all in the nation building activities. To protect underclass from all forms of social injustice and exploitation.

http://www.allthearticles.com/affirmative-action-program.html

An affirmative action program is a program that is designed to measure and manage equal opportunity at a company. The program measures the employment practices of a company through a series of reports and analysis of the companys workforce, hiring, promotion and termination practices. These reports and as well as narrative explaining the companys affirmative action obligations, commitments and corrective action it will take to correct any under representation of a protected group are organized into an affirmative action plan (AAP). The analysis used to determine if the organization is underutilized by females or minorities in its workforce involves a comparative review of the headcount at the company by EEO Categories or by Job Group and then comparing the current workforce against the companys geographical recruitment area as well as promotion patterns. If the results represent a statistically significant difference in the current workforce vs. the geographical area that the company recruits from then affirmative action must be taken in the form of good faith efforts to correct the underutilization. Additional tests are conducted to ensure that the company is hiring, promoting and terminating employees at an equal rate. The tests to determine this vary and in the event that the statistical results identify one class of individuals by race or gender are being adversely selected over another an inference of discrimination can be drawn.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/you-dont-want-law-so-spell-out-affirmative-action-plan/16711/

With India Inc making it clear today that it was against any form of legislation that enforces reservation in the private sector and would like to do this voluntarily, the Government asked them to spell out how they intend to ensure that action on this front will be truly affirmative.

At a meeting here between various chambers of commerce and the Government on inducting more SC/STs in the private sector, the Government told the corporate sector that if they intend to take on this task on a voluntary basis, through affirmative action, then they should consider introducing a system, without compromising on efficiency, that has flexible standards for recruitment and promotion to ensure more SC/STs are inducted in the private sector. In fact, the Government made reference to Article 335 of the Constitution that says claims of the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of a State while suggesting that they, the private sector, could adjust hiring specifically for increasing the representations of SC/STs in the corporate sector. In fact, Article 355 also says nothing in this Article shall prevent in making of any provision in favour of the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes for relaxation in qualifying marks in any examination or lowering the standards of evaluation, for reservation in matters or promotion to any class or classes of services or posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of a State. While the industry is now expected to get back to the government on this suggestion , India Inc agreed to make considerable progress in introducing affirmative action in one year. Towards this end, the corporate sector would outline their employee profile from next year by treating 2007 as the cut-off date. In fact, in the missive sent out to the industry ahead of the meeting, one of the points mentioned by the PMs task force for a road map on induction of SC/STs in the private sector wanted the industrys opinion on whether the scheme of affirmative action should contain some objective standards of enforcement like numerical targets or quotas. One of the options of monitoring the code of conduct for this voluntary action could be through an ombudsman created by individual chambers of commerce. In fact, one chamber specified that they would like to introduce affirmative action in stages by first starting with an employee base of more than 400 people. Apart from induction through affirmative action, the private sector did outline that they would contribute towards skill uplift of SC/STs and would take up schemes from promoting education and vocational training of SC/STs through PPP.

Meanwhile, at a separate event today, when Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath was asked if the Government would consider any other options for private sector reservations considering the industrys tough stance, he said, we will look at all options legal options are always open, the industry should look beyond its own concerns, social justice is the driving force that will decide policy.

Affirmative action in India: In Indian situation, because of the reservation system based on caste, the state could not lift up those who are backward or poor, as they may not belong to the castes or tribes qualified to receive such aid from the state. That is the main reason for the demands for reservation for Muslims and Christians. Also, the reservation system has turned castes against each other, as they have to compete for the small social and economic benefit in a very poor country. The failure of the existing system of reservation based on caste and tribe is very obvious. The characteristics of this failed system are many. Reservations for Scheduled Castes (SC) in schools and government posts remain largely unfilled, whereas reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) are generally filled to capacity. A 1997 study indicates that nationally preferential policies only benefit 6 percent of Dalit families. Moreover, the same study reported that "none of India's elite universities and engineering institutes had filled its quota for members of scheduled castes." People from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes continue to be absent from white collar positions. For the country as a whole, members of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes -combined -- did not receive as much as 3 percent of the degrees in engineering or medicine, though together they add up to nearly one-fourth of the population of India, according to a study by Sowell(2004). The government provides scholarship to SC students to attend school, but that is not enough: "Even when the government provides primary schooling free of charge, the costs of books and supplies may not be affordable by very poor people. For secondary education, rural students especially may not always find a school nearby, so that those whose parents cannot afford the costs of commuting or relocating -- and paying for housing and boarding -- have little realistic prospect of attending, regardless of preferential admissions policies." Some Scheduled Castes do better than others with the system, raising the demand in some quarters for "quotas within the quota". A particular case in point are the Chamars, historically a leather-working (and therefore untouchable) caste. In the state of Maharashtra, the Chamars are among the most prosperous of the scheduled castes. A study found that they were 17 percent of the state"s population and 35 percent of its medical students. In the state of Haryana, the Chamars received 65 percent of the scholarships for the scheduled castes at the graduate level and 80 percent at the undergraduate level.

Meanwhile 18 of the 37 untouchable groups in Haryana failed to get any of the preferential scholarships. In the state of Madhya Pradesh, Chamars were 53 percent of all the scheduled caste students in the schools of that state. In Bihar, just two of the 12 scheduled castes in that state--one being the Chamars-- supplied 61 percent of the scheduled class students in school and 74 percent of those in college.

Industry kicks off affirmative action plan

NEW DELHI: Industry on Thursday announced its affirmative action programme under which it will produce 1,000 entrepreneurs from SC and ST communities. The plan was submitted to the Prime Minister last year. The programme was launched in the presence of social justice ministry officials at a function of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, which had formed an expert committee taskforce on SCs and STs.