Karnataka's Push For Locals In Top Jobs: Quota Trumps Merit?

Karnataka's draft bill requires employers to give 50 per cent of management jobs and 70 per cent of non-management jobs to local candidates. The announcement was laden with a lot of developments and some backtracking of course, with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah deleting his social media post announcing 100 per cent reservation for Kannadigas in all Group C and Group D jobs in private companies in the state. Reservation of jobs in private firms will be capped at 70 per cent for non-management roles and 50 per cent for management-level employees, Labour Minister Santosh Lad clarified simultaneously. Now reservation for locals in the job sector is not a new idea. At least ten state governments including Gujarat, Madhya Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan - have passed, or proposed a law mandating native quotas, but each time, courts have stalled them, calling such a move unconstitutional, something that violates the basic right of a human being of a dignified livelihood. This is a matter of quota versus merit, but also of the reality behind the tall promises that governments make reserving jobs for local.