Karnataka must junk quota non-solution

Forcing firms to look within the local talent pool for half of managerial and 70% of non-managerial jobs, with onerous compliances, would surely impact the state’s growth momentum.

Karnataka’s Bill on reservation for Kannadigas in private sector jobs is not just regressive, but also may not prove to be the political quick fix the government wants. Given that unemployment in the state has stayed significantly lower than the national average for some years now, the draft legislation has more to do with discontentment among locals over quality of employment than with joblessness. The state’s IT dominance, concentrated in Bengaluru, is both the result and the cause of software talent from across the country flocking there over decades. The income gulf between the migrant IT and largely local non-IT crowds has translated into consumption pressures for the latter, including in housing. While the political need to address this discontentment as well as create more jobs for locals is understandable, the quotas being prescribed are hardly the solution.

Bengaluru, July 15 (ANI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with State Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar attend the proceedings on the first day of monsoon session of State Assembly, in Bengaluru on Monday. (ANI Photo) (Arunkumar Rao)

Bengaluru is built on migrant labour and capital. With globalisation, the city became a byword for migration of software jobs from western cities. While this played a big role, the freedom to hire from anywhere in India allowed many IT majors to make Bengaluru home. Forcing firms to look within the local talent pool for half of managerial and 70% of non-managerial jobs, with onerous compliances, would surely impact the state’s growth momentum.

Also, the proposed law many not stand judicial scrutiny. The Siddaramaiah cabinet cleared the Bill despite earlier court judgments terming such quotas “unconstitutional”. In November 2023, the Punjab and Haryana high court deemed Haryana’s 75% reservation as “unconstitutional”, saying it was violative of Constitutional provisions guaranteeing several freedoms to citizens as well as those that curbed the legislature’s powers on making laws on domicile requirements for jobs. The Karnataka government must see sense and back off.