The issue with affirmative action

They say that the path to hell is paved with good intentions, and the execution of affirmative action in our country perhaps leaves a lot to be desired.

Yesterday, I presented a case for affirmative action, and I am quite certain, that I have likely upset a few readers.

Why are so many people so vocal against affirmative action? I suspect that this is because the implementation of affirmative action has left a lot to be desired. This imperfect implementation, in turn, could be ascribed to the idea being implemented before the technology was in place to implement it well.

Consider a parallel in subsidies that the government tries to provide to the underprivileged. LPG has been sold in India at subsidized prices at a hug cost to the exchequer until recently. The government had no mechanism to ensure that the subsidy reached only the deserving and therefore had to offer the same price even to those who did not need it. Sure, they tried a different tack with kerosene, by adding a blue dye to the subsidized kerosene in the Public Distribution System. But there did not exist an effective enforcement mechanism to ensure that the blue kerosene did not find its way to the open market, thereby making the middle men richer. You get the picture.

Because this same issue has plagued the implementation of any affirmative action, abuse and inefficiency become pervasive.

People learn to use the system for personal profit and this wealth then enables them to lobby hard to keep the system in place, intact, such that they can continue to profit from it.

This was perhaps also true of unions, where the original intention was to protect labour, pretty soon the system was used to benefit the union leaders.

There is however hope. With ever cheaper computers and storage, we can now direct any subsidies with pinpoint accuracy. The current governments initiative to channel LPG subsidies directly to the Aadhar linked bank accounts of the underprivileged is a case in point. Surely, the system will take some time to mature, but just as surely, the middle men will be taken out of the loop, and we can be equally sure that they wont go down without a fight.

This brings me to the other major issue with any affirmative action. Entitlement. More on that tomorrow.