First step to understanding privilege and why reservations are required.

Have you ever thought "If I was a SC, I would get into IIT/IIM/whatever institution". If yes, then think about the resources that were provided to you to crack IIT - school you studied in, tuitions, etc

If you were a member of the SC community, you were disproportionately more likely to have not had the same quality of those resources.

Why? Financial inequality

36% of the SC community earn a salary below the poverty line (more than double the 16% of upper castes).
That's just how stark the financial inequality is.

And that's just financial inequality, I haven't even mentioned social inequality. There are documented incidents of caste based discrimination happening even today in this country.

Think about all of our institutions. The faculty in your colleges, the supreme court, the big IT companies. Ask yourself whether there is a proportionate representation of SC and ST individuals here?

Now think about the low-paying jobs. Think about cab drivers, auto-drivers, fruit vendors. Think about the most important job in our country, sanitation workers, who are among the lowest paid. Do you see which community dominates here?

Why is there so much of a difference?
Simple, because we have had god knows how many years of systemic caste based discrimination. And the only way to ensure equal representation is through reservations.

Now, is reservations enough as a stand-alone? No. Here's why. Around the age of 18, a few individuals from the SC community are just handed the opportunity to study at IIT.

But for the first 18 years of their life, there isn't enough support provided to them

Most of their government schools are nowhere near as good as the private schools. Teachers don't show up.
Also, there's a good chance they might be forced to work and support their family instead of spending time on studying. There's already an inequality here

Imagine studying engineering in college without having received proper school education in 9th-12th grade.
This is why there is a high drop-out rate and low attendance rate among the SC community in colleges.

This is why reservations haven't been as effective as they could have been. To make reservations more effective, we need it be accompanied by poverty alleviation schemes like a UBI. Plus, we need our primary education to be in a much better shape than it is.

Will any politician consider these measures? Sure, none of them are right now, but opening conversations about this is a good start. Without the mobilisation of masses towards causes like these, without protesting against the current establishment, nothing will happen

Anyways, before I went on my socialism rant, the point of this was to help y'all understand why reservations are required. And I know that 90% of y'all who follow me agree with me on this. But if this helped even one person change their perspective on reservations, I'm happy