Reservation - A few anomalies
With all that is being discussed about reservation after the recent judgement just listing down a few noted and a few of my thoughts.
1. Few parties are a strict no-no to the creamy layer restriction. If a person benefits out of reservation, does his/her son/daughter still need reservation. Are we saying reservation cannot lift them from their social backwardness. If so what is the purpose of the policy. If education doesnt help them progress why all these steps. Are we saying we will indefinitely continue and increase reservation without consciously expecting any progress in these communities or are these just vote bank politics.
2. Increase in number of seats so that open quota students are not affected. 2 questions here.
a. Does this mean these institutes were running at lower than their full capacity all along, if so there is a concern. Why were a lot of students missing opportunities while these higher education centres were lacklustre.
b. If they were not running at lower capacities how can they increase seats now. what steps are taken to increase the numbers without impacting the quality of education.
3. My gut feeling says all this will help the Open Quota students in the interim. If an institute had 100 seats, 78 were open quota. Now to retain 78 open qutoa seats and provide 49% reservation, the seats will be increased to 153. If 75 seats are not filled by SCs/STs and OBCs who are not creamy layer the remaining will come back to open quota. Chances of OBC students filling up these numbers immediately are lower, also due to creamy layer restriction most eligible people might not be able to pay for education in IIMs. Even if 10-15 seats come back to open quota number of open quota students getting admission will only increae due to this exercise. If people implementing it are really workng for the OBCs an ideal way could be to create 3 layers, OBCs, OBC creamy layer and open quota. OBC creamy layer could get seats which fall back unclaimed in OBC reserver category and then it can flow down to Open quota where all of them can compete.
One fallout of all these steps is the OCs who do not have any option of reservation are getting disillusioned with the nation as such.They beleive that whatever they do is not going to be enough to earn them seat in a reputed educational institution and some guy who does much lesser than them can get it far more easily.
Well there are 2 things. Why should we worry about what others have got vs what we got and compare our performance. Let us just look at ourselves. If there are 40 seats in the open quota, and if we are in the top 40 we will definitely get it. It is only the people below the 40 who blame it on reservation for their loss. It is the average who are not able to perform well enough. Let us think in our minds that there are only 40 seats or this nation has only a total of 30000 instead of 1 lakh for example available seats. Let us try to be the best in our choen line to get into those courses instead of worrying about the people whom we think gain backdoor entries. Life is the greatest of all levellers and only the fittest can survive. So our elligibility to do something will be tested at all levels and only true competence can save a person. So let us work for our own success and ignore the urge to compare.
If we do compare let us think this as a punishment for some of the sins commited by our ancestors against these castes. Let us take it in our stride and proceed instead of stopping and wondering of these differences. Let us not think that we should have been in some other caste or religion by birth so that we would have got the same benefits. Let us instead think the world expects us to score 95% where it expects the others to score 75%. Let us take it as an appreciation of skill than injustice.
But one question though. I understand that in some villages, the OBCs do not allow the dalits to live in the same street drink in the same glass etc., How will these division lines be eroded. For our political leaders need the votes of both the OBCs and dalits, so whose side will they take.
1. Few parties are a strict no-no to the creamy layer restriction. If a person benefits out of reservation, does his/her son/daughter still need reservation. Are we saying reservation cannot lift them from their social backwardness. If so what is the purpose of the policy. If education doesnt help them progress why all these steps. Are we saying we will indefinitely continue and increase reservation without consciously expecting any progress in these communities or are these just vote bank politics.
2. Increase in number of seats so that open quota students are not affected. 2 questions here.
a. Does this mean these institutes were running at lower than their full capacity all along, if so there is a concern. Why were a lot of students missing opportunities while these higher education centres were lacklustre.
b. If they were not running at lower capacities how can they increase seats now. what steps are taken to increase the numbers without impacting the quality of education.
3. My gut feeling says all this will help the Open Quota students in the interim. If an institute had 100 seats, 78 were open quota. Now to retain 78 open qutoa seats and provide 49% reservation, the seats will be increased to 153. If 75 seats are not filled by SCs/STs and OBCs who are not creamy layer the remaining will come back to open quota. Chances of OBC students filling up these numbers immediately are lower, also due to creamy layer restriction most eligible people might not be able to pay for education in IIMs. Even if 10-15 seats come back to open quota number of open quota students getting admission will only increae due to this exercise. If people implementing it are really workng for the OBCs an ideal way could be to create 3 layers, OBCs, OBC creamy layer and open quota. OBC creamy layer could get seats which fall back unclaimed in OBC reserver category and then it can flow down to Open quota where all of them can compete.
One fallout of all these steps is the OCs who do not have any option of reservation are getting disillusioned with the nation as such.They beleive that whatever they do is not going to be enough to earn them seat in a reputed educational institution and some guy who does much lesser than them can get it far more easily.
Well there are 2 things. Why should we worry about what others have got vs what we got and compare our performance. Let us just look at ourselves. If there are 40 seats in the open quota, and if we are in the top 40 we will definitely get it. It is only the people below the 40 who blame it on reservation for their loss. It is the average who are not able to perform well enough. Let us think in our minds that there are only 40 seats or this nation has only a total of 30000 instead of 1 lakh for example available seats. Let us try to be the best in our choen line to get into those courses instead of worrying about the people whom we think gain backdoor entries. Life is the greatest of all levellers and only the fittest can survive. So our elligibility to do something will be tested at all levels and only true competence can save a person. So let us work for our own success and ignore the urge to compare.
If we do compare let us think this as a punishment for some of the sins commited by our ancestors against these castes. Let us take it in our stride and proceed instead of stopping and wondering of these differences. Let us not think that we should have been in some other caste or religion by birth so that we would have got the same benefits. Let us instead think the world expects us to score 95% where it expects the others to score 75%. Let us take it as an appreciation of skill than injustice.
But one question though. I understand that in some villages, the OBCs do not allow the dalits to live in the same street drink in the same glass etc., How will these division lines be eroded. For our political leaders need the votes of both the OBCs and dalits, so whose side will they take.
posted by Devanathan at 8:52 AM
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