Quotas: Are they the right instruments to impart social parity?

Quota system has always been a favoured tool in the Indian Constitution to establish caste based egalitarianism in the society. Changes have been made from time to time  in the percentage of reservation given to the backward classes in government institutions to achieve social equality. When it was first introduced the sole aim was to bring changes in the lives of the people belonging to the backward class who have been exploited by the upper class for ages. At that time the amount of reservation given was 22%. In 1979, Mandal Commission was set up which on its report submitted in 1980 used to 1930 census to identify more backward classes which were put into the category of OBCs. And there were SC's and ST's. Thus the percentage of reservation was hiked to 49.5%. Recently, Congress called for Muslim Sub-Quota under the OBC reservation stating that Muslims are a minority in the country and they must receive equal opportunities. Well, reservation system has its own communal implications but keeping them aside lets try to analyze if they have fulfilled the aim for which they were introduced.

Well there would be two ways of analyzing the problem:

1) Accepting that the present method of reservation is correct.

2) Or some other way can be proposed! 

Lets take the first case where we think that caste based reservation indeed imparts social equity. But has it? Though the quota system exists, the fraction of backward class population actually drawing any benefits from it is woefully small. What is the reason? The reason is that there is a majority of the people belonging to the backward class don't have access to proper living let alone education. Very clearly they remain deprived of the right to equality. While majority of the upper class if not all continue to prosper in someway or the other, the scenario is quite the opposite for the backward classes despite of all the safeguarding measures taken by the government and also the constitution. A member of the backward class only comes to utilize the benefits of the reservation system at the age of 16 or 17 which is the age when we are exposed to the needs of higher education. But what before to that? By the time a child from the backward class turns 16 he will have faced all the injustice which may have created a rift in his mind between the higher and the lower class. The sense of us and them. And clearly, if the child has not been exposed to quality education right from birth, how can he be expected to take up higher studies when he grows up. Naturally reservation system failed! Only a child from a well settled family of the backward class has used his right to use the reservation system. Purpose not fulfilled. 

Well there are many including me who think that a caste based reservation is not right because firstly it creates communal tensions. Again the sense of us and them prevails. And as a matter of fact there are many families belonging to the General class who lead their lives below the poverty line. What about them? Is it their fault that they were born in a family belonging to the general caste? And talk of achieving social parity, sorry but the was  a huge blunder.

So what must be done to actually exercise equality in the society? 

The best thing in my view would be to establish reservation system on economic backgrounds. I have known families belonging to general caste and yet very poor and people of backward classes but well settled. This would naturally give opportunities to the economically backward ones who are  in one way are actually socially backward. And talking about properly enforcing this reservation system, I would like to link it to the CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES of a company. Today, every company is being asked to bring about changes in their nearby under-developed regions and providing quality education to the poor  is covered in the five point system of the CSR which would definitely pave a path to establishment of social equality. Nonetheless, the feeling of Us and Then will still loom over the minds of the upper class( in economic terms) but at least communal violence can surely be avoided to some extent.