Use of technology to achieve social justice a distant dream

Addressing a technology summit in late 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India had made “technology a medium to attain social justice”. Admirable as it sounds, more than four years later, the reality is that the efficient implementation of technology in the area of reservation in promotions for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) remains a distant dream.

In February, while taking cognisance of the various petitions filed by state governments and reserved category employees citing inadequate representation and unfilled posts in reserved categories, the Supreme Court asked all states to provide information on the cadre-wise data on the inadequate representation of the SCs and the STs for facilitating reservation in promotions.