The whittled-down I.N.D.I.A formation has stayed the course on promising a caste Census and distribution of government jobs in proportion to the count of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and General Category. This promise is unlikely to have efficacy in the context of the public sector shrinking rapidly. The Opposition must tap the private sector for retaining the robustness of India’s reservation policy.

Consider this: between 2013 and 2023, the number of employees in the Central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) contracted from 17.3 lakh to 14.9 lakh, and that of Central government employees, excluding the armed forces, from 33.2 lakh to 31.7 lakh. Contract or casual labour accounted for 43 per cent of CPSEs employees in 2023, up from 17 per cent in 2013. Contract workers do not enjoy security of tenure, have low wages and minimal social security. Public sector jobs are decreasing and losing sheen.