Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019-The Hindu-14-09-2022

GS-2
POLITY
CONTEXT :
Reservation cannot be implemented as a “poverty alleviation programme” for the socially and educationally forward classes, which is what the quota for the economically weaker sections.
PRELIM AND MAINS :
Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019
It introduced economic reservation by amending Articles 15 and 16. It inserted Article 15 (6) and Article 16 (6) in the Constitution to allow reservation for the economically backward in the unreserved category.
It was enacted to promote the welfare of the poor not covered by the 50% reservation policy for SCs, STs and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC).
It enables both the Centre and the states to provide reservations to the EWSs of society.
Since this is a central law on subjects (employment, education) in the concurrent list (subjects on which states and the central government both have jurisdiction), the state governments need to ratify it before adopting it locally.
The 103 Constitutional Amendment Act modified Article 15 to allow the government to provide for the progress of economically weaker sections.
The 103 Constitutional Amendment Act modified Article 16 to facilitate the reservation of economically weaker sections up to 10 per cent of all posts.
This reservation is additional to the existing cap of 50 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and the Other Backward Classes, thus resulting in about 60 per cent total reservation.
The 103 amendments of the Indian Constitution will facilitate more seats in higher education institutions like medical colleges, IIMs, IITs, NITs, etc.
Reservation is provided under the 103 Constitutional Amendment Bill irrespective of religion and caste.

Arguments that are against the Act:
It will be difficult to judge anyone poor on the basis of self-declaration.
In countries, those who have income less than 7 lakhs annual but 5 % people file to return it easy to manipulate his income to achieving reservation.
This act is not discussed properly in parliament, not given an extra chance to be examined by any committee.
This reservation increase the number of seat in many institutions which is difficult to accommodate, even govt have lack infrastructure and resources and is difficult to implement.
It will lead to mediocrity. Admission of poor-quality students under the quota may impact the system of education.
Reservation is provided on individual economic status, which violates the Constitution’s basic structure.
This amendment is against the idea of equal opportunity. It favours a few and provides them special privileges discriminating against others.