Affirmative Action in Education Leads to Complacency or Complementarity? Evidence from Affirmative Action in Education Inclusion in Uttar Pradesh, India

Globally, democratic and welfare-oriented governments resort to affirmative action to bridge the equity gap arising from various historic and structural exclusions (race, color, gender, caste, socio-economic status, sexuality, nationality or historical discrimination). Affirmative action is required to improve equality of opportunity in different fields such as health, education, agriculture, economic development and transportation. There are two contrasting views with regards to impact of affirmative action at household level. The first view is that it leads to increased effort by beneficiaries i.e., a beneficiary further complements the efforts of government by investing additional effort or resources (complementarity). However, the second view claims that affirmative actions make beneficiaries complacent, and instead of increased effort there is a tendency to relax and offset their own efforts. Some critics have even extended the argument that affirmative action is counterproductive in that investments are wasted on gambling, alcohol, or other temptation goods. Here in this study we present evidence from one such affirmative action policy in the field of education in Uttar Pradesh. The section 12.1.c of the Right to Education Act 2009 in India mandates private schools to reserve 25 percent of their entry level seats (pre-primary or class I) for children from disadvantaged groups or economically weaker sections. By taking stratified random samples of winners and non- winners of RTE 12.1.c lottery applicants and analyzing their household level data, this study finds that affirmative action leads to complementarity of efforts by parents as opposed to complacency or reduced efforts. This study has wide ranging implications for the policies on affirmative action in India