For decades India’s reservation policy has been a vital instrument to correct historical injustices and open doors for communities that faced systematic exclusion. Yet, after seventy-five years of implementation, an important structural gap has emerged: unlike the OBC category, SC/ST reservation currently lacks a robust income-based mechanism to exclude economically privileged families from availing benefits intended for the most disadvantaged. As a student from the ST category who attended IIT Madras and who comes from a relatively privileged background, I have seen firsthand how this dynamic intensifies competition for genuinely disadvantaged ST candidates — students who lack access to quality schooling, tutoring, or mentoring — and thus undermines the policy’s original moral purpose.
This project is a direct response to that gap. My aim is not to oppose reservation; it is to strengthen it so the benefits reach those who need them most. I plan to do this through a two-pronged, student-led initiative based at IIT Madras: (1) a mentorship and resource program that leverages the capabilities of privileged ST students to uplift economically disadvantaged ST students, and (2) a collaborative policy research effort that explores the feasibility of introducing income-based criteria in the SC/ST framework — with careful attention to safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable.