Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 2
HISTORY 2
LEGAL CHALLENGES TO AFFIRMATIVE POLICY: 3
NEED ASSESSMENT: 3
QUALITY CONCERN: 4
Affirmative action In India: Constitutional Reference 4
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN PRIVATE SECTOR: 5
CONCLUSION 5
CASE REFERENCE: 7

INTRODUCTION
Affirmative action” means positive steps taken to increase the participation and representation of women and deprived section in employment, education and culture from which they have been deprived due to historical reasons. Such steps are based on preferential selection which means selection on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity of those people who are disadvantaged. Affirmative action aims at achieving goals such as facilitate employment opportunity and reducing inequalities …show more content…
Just over a decade after the Civil Rights Act, preferential government policies were challenged in the courts. The case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), which challenged use of racial quotas in admissions in California state medical schools, was the first important case in defining the limits of government preferential policies. Bakke argued that through use of such policies the government was discriminating against whites. The Supreme Court disallowed the quotas.
Another major Supreme Court decision in the history of affirmative action came in Adarand Constructors v. Pena (1995). The case involved the award of construction contracts by a federal government agency. The Court stated: “federal racial classifications, like those of a state, must serve a compelling governmental interest, and must be narrowly tailored to further that …show more content…
Statistics indicates that Affirmative action programs have resulted in doubling or tripling the number of minority applications to colleges or universities. But after California abolished its affirmative action programs in 1998, the minority student admissions at UC Berkeley fell 61 percent, and minority admissions at UCLA fell 36 percent. Similarly, after Texas abolished its affirmative action program in 1996, Rice University's freshman class had 46 percent fewer African-Americans and 22 percent fewer Hispanic students. Further, there is also concern raised, whether caste is the valid indicator of backwardness or affirmative action should be based upon other factors like income, class or religion etc. If caste is still the most desirable factor for the affirmative action, then to what extent and in which sphere it should be