Reservations - Does the word ring a bell?
Yes, I am in the mood to crib about the reservations for backward castes in all Indian Educational institutions. If you are an Indian reader, you know what I am talking about. And if you unfortunately belong to the General Category as I do, then you probably know the pain. Unless you have been a genius and have never faced a problem getting admissions.
The entire concept of Reservation in Educational institutions came up to uplift the backward caste in India to provide them education opportunities. The initial idea, I think, was to have this model run for a few years, after which the backward classes should have been better off, and then we could phase over to the Merit based admission system in institutes. But 60 years post independence, we are still holding on to the system. In fact, we are adding on to the reservations. The mandal commission introduced reservations for OBC candidates. And then, recently, there were talks to increase reservations for backward castes. The story never ends. Probably, it is politically too good to be over with. I had acquaintances in college, who were OBC but I think were financially better off than me. I dont know how much more upliftment they are going to need.
Some new posts in the newspaper intrigued me recently. I understand that the usefulness of these reservations is debatable and supporters argue that it is needed for upliftment of Backward castes in India. But I never knew that these reservations are extended only to Hindu backward classes. If a person belongs to OBC or SC/ST and he is Muslim/Christian, he isn't eligible. The idea seems stupid, isn't it? If you want to have reservations, have it for all. Or have it for none. Or more interestingly, we should probably look at new reservations for General category candidates, because they are not at all finding it easy to get admission.
Why do people think that backward caste candidates can't make it to good institutes on merit? The whole idea escapes my understanding.
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i was expecting some insight on the situation to debate on, but you havent provided much room for debate... could elaborate...
ReplyDeleteReply for Buddha's comment :
ReplyDeleteYes, I got this feedback from another friend as well that I could have elaborated more on the reservations including reservation for girls and the impact it has on General category.
I agree I could have done that but sadly, that was not on my mind while writing this post. The main ideas I wanted my post wanted to speak about was the fact that the reservations are not being extended to all backward castes on an equal basis. If you have to extend reservations, extend to all eligible. Why should there be bifurcation on basis of Religion - Only Hindu Backward caste candidates are offered reservations at several cases. Also, I find it amusing that the government always talks about extending reservations but there is no mood to move on from reservations model to merit model.
Also I do not agree on the basis by which they identify backward categories - should it be caste based or income based?
Any thoughts?