'India will hit 90% reservations soon...': Finfluencer flags India’s ‘multi-gen quota trap’

A post by finfluencer and Wisdom Hatch founder Akshat Shrivastava has reignited the debate over India’s reservation system just as the Union Cabinet approved caste-based enumeration for the next national census. 

“India will hit 90% reservations soon,” Shrivastava warned on X, noting that the Supreme Court’s 50% cap on quotas has already been breached with the introduction of the EWS category. 

“Now, we have states like Karnataka where reservation exceeds 65%,” he wrote, calling out how what was meant as a tool for upliftment has now morphed into a “multi-generational entitlement scheme.”

Shrivastava’s post struck a nerve, triggering a wave of responses—one notably from Chartered Accountant Nitin Kaushik, who argued that the biggest failure of the reservation system lies in its inefficiency and misuse. 

“The section of society that belongs to a certain CLASS but has abundance of wealth, are given easy entry… while the poor in reserved categories DON’T EVEN GET the benefits,” he wrote. Meanwhile, general category individuals below the poverty line “walk in the dark all their life.”

The exchange comes amid a major policy pivot by the Centre. The Union Government, led by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has formally approved the inclusion of caste enumeration in the next decadal census. This marks the first time since 1931 that castes outside the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) will be counted in a national population survey.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw described the move as a demonstration of the government’s commitment to social justice and inclusive governance. The decision follows months of political pressure, particularly from the Opposition, which made caste census a central plank during the 2024 general elections.

Though the timeline remains unconfirmed, the census is expected to begin in late 2026 or early 2027. Since the last decadal census was delayed due to the pandemic, this exercise will be closely watched—not only for its scale but for its consequences.

The caste census could radically reshape the way quotas are assigned, with new data likely to trigger demands for expanded reservations. Legal caps like the 50% ceiling set by the Supreme Court in 1992 may no longer hold ground in the face of empirical caste data.