Since the 1990s, the discourse around caste-based reservations has taken a sharp turn towards hostility, which has resulted in pushing individuals and groups obtaining reservations into marginalised corners in educational and professional spaces. The recent Supreme Court judgment about reservations in promotions in state employment in Uttarakhand reopens this legal and moral discussion about the need for caste-based quotas in employment. This paper evaluates the effects of the anti-reservation judgments with a gender lens, looking at the potential and possibilities for lower-caste women into education and employment. With the National Sample Survey Office data we consider the rate of participation of lower castes and women separately, as well as lower-caste women as a category in education and employment, and consider how they are affected at the entry point and in career progression.
