The problem with affirmative action...

...Spinning moral compass

The challenge of combating discrimination is complicated. But there is no doubt that despite reservations (or arguably, because of the form they have taken), the texture of social relations between marginalised communities and others is deeply debilitating for marginalised groups, in ways we cannot even imagine. In certain areas, like practices of segregation, the law might help. Assistance to institutions to deal with this form of diversity is absolutely essential. Some programmes have paid dividends. But law, administrative solutions, and reducing justice to a numbers game will only go so far; in fact it can sometimes crowd out and distort the fundamental moral issues. The appalling truth is that there are very few places that the required ethical labour is being done.