On Middle Classes

On Middle Classes
On the job front the complete story is not so dismal because globalisation has also unfolded big opportunities for lots of people, particularly of the upper middle class. This is especially true about people having degrees from the
famous IITs and IIMs who are in big demand both in India and the world over. The students from such premier institutions walk away with unheard of pay packets. India churns out more than 70000 computers professional every year in addition to the graduates from the IITs. The Indian software industry employed nearly 160000 professionals in 1998-99. Indian software industry has earned a worldwide reputation.
This feat has been achieved by leveraging India’s highly skilled technical manpower. India has emerged as a powerful player in the world in the IT sector. India’s advance in the IT sector has attracted many American and European companies to locate their back office operations in Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Gurgaon etc. The shifting of back office operations of foreign companies has been influenced by many factors like abundant supply of cheap labour, cheap satellite communication and the facility of Internet
While this development has created tremendous job opportunities in India it has been used by foreign companies as a cost cutting arrangement. These back office operations range from billing to payroll handling, airline reservation to answering customer complains. In case of both these kinds of jobs whether in the much famed IT sector or the Call Centres students coming from upper middle class and urban background are more likely to get these jobs.
The reservation policy of the government has been in keeping with the social justice. This was found that without reservation people from the disadvantaged section were unable to get jobs. As of now the private companies and the Multi National Corporations do not follow any principle of reservation. liberalisation as a ploy to
.
Some people argue that apart from demanding reservation also in private movement of the disadvantaged section should exert pressure on the government to the quality of education in government managed institutions.
The people from the disadvantaged sections do not have the means arge quality education offered at high prices in elite schools meant for the well-off sections of society. Thus the introduction of the new economic policy has marginalised a section of the population, as they do not have the necessary skills to benefit from the opportunities offered by globalisation
Some representatives of disadvantaged sections look at deny the disadvantaged strata of society the benefit of reservation. Many Dalit leaders like Ram Vilas Paswan and Social Justice Minister in the UPA government led by Man Mohan Singh, Meira Kumar have appealed for reservation even in the private sector.
To make the marginalised partners in the bounty offered by globalisation process there is need of big investment in imparting that kind of skills in them that they do not lag behind aspirants from privileged section of society.
Dreze and Sen are of the view that there is great opportunity here for channelling political activism in the direction of forcefully demanding expansion of basic education health care and social security for those who are left out of the system.