Why is the government making the quota protestors their opponents?

The quota reform movement is taking a new turn. So long the government had been cooperating with the students by not obstructing legitimate movements. But there were all indications of a change towards a confrontational situation when things took a turn yesterday, Sunday, with the students taking to the streets at midnight, Chhatra League attacking the students at Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong University and Cumilla University and Chhatra League on vigil at Dhaka University. Monday afternoon proved these indications true.

Chhatra League attacked the students demonstrating at Dhaka University. As usual, they wore helmets. Clashes broke out with either side chasing each other and hurling bricks and stones. When the students dispersed and started to retreat, they were attacked and severely beaten up. Over a hundred students were injured and hospitalised.

Previous experiences indicate that under such circumstances, the movement is quelled first by extreme repression and torture, and then closure of the campus to bring things under control.

Following a ruling of the High Court reinstating quotas in public service jobs, the students took to the streets once again after 2018. Even outside the binary of merit over quota or quota over merit, the overall state of employment for the youth makes this inevitable.

First let's look at some statistics concerning employment of youth in Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), every year 1.8 million to 1.9 million young persons are joining the job market. Statistics of Civil Affairs and Staffs 2021 report states that the number of government employees is 1,554,927. Of them 404,591 are women, that is, 26 per cent of the total government service holders. In 2010 the number of women service holders was 21 per cent. Replying to a question in parliament on 22 February this year, public administration minister Farhad Hossain said appointments were made to 358,237 posts in the past five years.

These figures make it clear that only 70,000 to 71,000 persons on average are employed in the government sector every year. The movement being held in the university for quota reforms in government jobs basically is for class one and two posts, though the demonstrators are demanding quota reforms in all government jobs.

Hundreds of thousands of young people, who do not get jobs in the public service sector, throng the job market every year. Their employment and livelihood lies in the private sector or their own enterprise. The government has no role in most of their employment and livelihood. On the contrary, those within the sphere of power are given all sorts of facilities and perks, with the wealth entering just a handful of pockets.

Take for example the Bangladesh part of the syndicate which recently was involved in sending workers to Malaysia. Not finding employment at home, every year 600,000 to 700,000 young people go overseas in hope of finding employment. They sweat and slog to send remittance back home, somehow keeping afloat the economy that is being wrecked by the so-called elite and their illegal capital flight. Four members of parliament are involved in the syndicate which has closed the doors on the Malaysian labour market, a major source of employment for Bangladesh's hard-working youth. The government fixed Tk 79,000 per head to go to Malaysia, but this syndicate pushed that up and each person had to play Tk 544,000.

A large section of the youth who stay back in the country take up self-employment like hawking on the pavements, selling paan, cigarettes, tea, or street food like alu poori, beguni and tea. They have to pay the police "toll" to run their businesses. According to Bangladesh Hawker Federation, each hawker on average has to pay a toll of Tk 300 per day. That means a total of around Tk 30 billion is collected in toll per year. This directly has an impact on the price of commodities.

How many of the young persons employed in the private sector have wages adequate for a dignified living and job security? Many are forced to take up jobs for monthly wages of just Tk 10,000 to Tk 12,000 after passing out from university.

It can in no way be denied that the quota system that was in place before being abolished by executive order in 2018 was unjustified and discriminatory. The 56 per cent quota deprived relatively good candidates from a chance of getting BCS jobs. But again, it cannot be said that those getting government jobs through BCS are meritorious and others are not.
After all, studying in a good educational institution in our country is not just a matter of merit, but also of means. Every year there are hundreds of thousands of students dropping out from primary, secondary and higher secondary education due to poverty. With proper opportunity, wouldn't they qualify to take the BCS exam? So if we talk against discrimination, we also have to take about employment to ensure dignified lives for the majority.

After the first anti-quota movement in 2018, the government unilaterally withdrew quotas from the class one and two government service posts. If is now not clear why this decision to abolish the quota has been brought forward again and whether the government has any motive behind this. The matter has gone to court and the government wants it to be settled in court.

But the manner in which things are advancing, it seems that the government is viewing the protesting students as opponents. The students have been insulted, humiliated. Still, their angry slogans terming themselves as "razakars" should not be condoned. They must realised there are many sides in a spontaneous movement. The sides have their own respective interests and agendas and try to stir up a disruption. The students need to be alert against anyone diverting the movement to a different direction.

The agitating students are not opponents of the government. The government is responsible for the situation that has emerged. After all, instead of reforming the quota system, they simply abolished it. Using the Chhatra League leaders and activists, assaulting the students and sending them to hospital, blocking the mobile network and such attempts to suppress the students will certainly not bode well.

* Manoj Dey is editorial assistant at Prothom Alo

* This column appeared in the print an online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir