General arguments against ‘Protective Discrimination’

A) Protective Discrimination is a partial and biased practice since it favours

particular individuals or groups.
B) Protective Discrimination neglects merit by reserving seats irrespective of
confirmation to the set standards for a particular job. It is a denial of the right
to equality which is guaranteed under the constitution as a fundamental right.
C) The present generation should not be penalized in form of reverse
discrimination for acts such as untouchability practiced in the past by their
predecessors.
D) Benefits of the Protective discrimination policies have actually failed to reach
those who need it the most due to lack of “trickle down effect”.
E) Since inequality is natural hence there should not be a deliberate effort on
the part of the state to eliminate it ; instead, there should be the survival of the
fittest.

General arguments favouring Protective Discrimination

A) Protective Discrimination is essential to redress the historical deprivation,
discrimination and societal imbalance.
B) Without Protective discrimination measures the marginalized groups will
never be linked to the mainstream, since it is the only avenue which opens the
doors for them for assimilation in to the broader society.
C) To ensure social justice, resources will have to be distributed more in
accordance to the needs of the individuals rather then just looking at its merit
at a macro level.
D) Equality of opportunity does not suffice rather equality of outcome has to be
the guiding principle. How can unequals be treated equally, only
protective discrimination can lead us to a truly competitive society in the long
run.
E) Protective discrimination acts as a trigger of inspiration and hope for the
hitherto deprived and discriminated groups, not only materially but
psychologically as well.
F) Liberty, Equality and Justice, instead of being contradictory, are, indeed
complimentary to each other .Thus protective discrimination or social justice
measures are much needed steps to realize these ideals.
Whether ‘Protective discrimination’ violates principles of fairness or not depends
upon which notion of distributive justice we subscribe to. Those believing in
“Desert” may out rightly reject the notion of “protective discrimination”. Within
“Egalitarians” we may find different versions and their conditional support to
“protective discrimination”. On the contrary the “Need” based notion of
distributive justice may fully support the measures of “protective
discrimination”.