Reservation: Should it be or Not?
I have reservation for reservation however I am against the current reservation policies. Reservation is crucial to accelerate growth of India. It might be possible that as an individual one may have disadvantage.
Why do we need reservation?
The stated reason for the implementation of reservation is the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens, such as the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, who had been subjected to thousands of years of discrimination by India's upper castes.
This was said after independence and reservation should have been ended after 10 yrs as proposed earlier. In my opinion this was a fair enough decision for the advancement of India.
We can’t ignore it, here is example
Take Tamil Nadu, for example. It’s well known that the students from BC/MBC have made significant inroads into the general category, for which there is open, unfettered competition. These reports in the Hindu (2004, and 2005) show clearly that BC/MBC students have done extremely well to capture the bulk of the open competition seats in medicine. The fraction of seats that went to the reserved categories is larger than their share in the population. Two years in a row!
To me, this is a clear indication that the rather aggressive reservation policy in that state has done a great job: it has brought a lot of groups up to speed, and made them mainstream. In other words, it is time to start thinking about (a) scaling down BC/MBC reservation, and (b) eliminating from the BC/MBC list the castes that have truly (and, probably disproportionately) benefited from reservation.
Do we need still need reservation?
Yes, we still need reservation. There is a large sector which is still backward in terms of education.
My reservation policies:
In my opinion there should not be reservation on the basis of caste. It should be on the basis of economical and regional background.
Economical basis: An economically weak person can’t afford expensive study. Please don’t say that government is providing basic education free of cost. I know the quality and environment of such educations. There are still many areas where classes are run under the shadow of tree and many areas where there are hardly classes taken in such institutes. If you want to see such areas do let me know. In these circumstances, an intelligent boy also will suffer. It doesn’t matter what caste he belongs to.
Regional basis: More that 60% population is still in villages and small towns and those people don’t have a good environment. For example I don’t expect a boy (from any caste) living in village can give a fair competition to the boy who is living in a city. The reasons are obvious. The environment in which one is brought up makes difference. The one who is living in rural areas will lack good schools, guidance, teacher, competition.
So if we give an opportunity to such candidates by providing a seat, which in a true sense he doesn’t deserve. By doing this we are making his next generation advance and hence country.
There are few rules which must be followed so that we can get rid of this reservation system in future. I have few in mind and they seems reasonable to me.
1. If a person has taken advantage of reservation, his descends are not eligible for reservation again. My point behind reservation is that major people don’t have awareness and that put them back in time. If you have taken advantage of reservation system, I do believe that your next generation will be modern enough to know what is going on current world.
2. There should be some basic criteria for defining a region and economic condition of the groups which are eligible for reservation. They could be as simple as Personal per capita income from a region, literacy rate of an area.
I am confident we can get rid of the reservation in future by using these policies. Reservation will decrease number of economically weak person’s percentage each year and will make rural areas more developed hence will decrease number of people who need reservation while in caste system these figures are going to increase daily.
Why do we need reservation?
The stated reason for the implementation of reservation is the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens, such as the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, who had been subjected to thousands of years of discrimination by India's upper castes.
This was said after independence and reservation should have been ended after 10 yrs as proposed earlier. In my opinion this was a fair enough decision for the advancement of India.
We can’t ignore it, here is example
Take Tamil Nadu, for example. It’s well known that the students from BC/MBC have made significant inroads into the general category, for which there is open, unfettered competition. These reports in the Hindu (2004, and 2005) show clearly that BC/MBC students have done extremely well to capture the bulk of the open competition seats in medicine. The fraction of seats that went to the reserved categories is larger than their share in the population. Two years in a row!
To me, this is a clear indication that the rather aggressive reservation policy in that state has done a great job: it has brought a lot of groups up to speed, and made them mainstream. In other words, it is time to start thinking about (a) scaling down BC/MBC reservation, and (b) eliminating from the BC/MBC list the castes that have truly (and, probably disproportionately) benefited from reservation.
Do we need still need reservation?
Yes, we still need reservation. There is a large sector which is still backward in terms of education.
My reservation policies:
In my opinion there should not be reservation on the basis of caste. It should be on the basis of economical and regional background.
Economical basis: An economically weak person can’t afford expensive study. Please don’t say that government is providing basic education free of cost. I know the quality and environment of such educations. There are still many areas where classes are run under the shadow of tree and many areas where there are hardly classes taken in such institutes. If you want to see such areas do let me know. In these circumstances, an intelligent boy also will suffer. It doesn’t matter what caste he belongs to.
Regional basis: More that 60% population is still in villages and small towns and those people don’t have a good environment. For example I don’t expect a boy (from any caste) living in village can give a fair competition to the boy who is living in a city. The reasons are obvious. The environment in which one is brought up makes difference. The one who is living in rural areas will lack good schools, guidance, teacher, competition.
So if we give an opportunity to such candidates by providing a seat, which in a true sense he doesn’t deserve. By doing this we are making his next generation advance and hence country.
There are few rules which must be followed so that we can get rid of this reservation system in future. I have few in mind and they seems reasonable to me.
1. If a person has taken advantage of reservation, his descends are not eligible for reservation again. My point behind reservation is that major people don’t have awareness and that put them back in time. If you have taken advantage of reservation system, I do believe that your next generation will be modern enough to know what is going on current world.
2. There should be some basic criteria for defining a region and economic condition of the groups which are eligible for reservation. They could be as simple as Personal per capita income from a region, literacy rate of an area.
I am confident we can get rid of the reservation in future by using these policies. Reservation will decrease number of economically weak person’s percentage each year and will make rural areas more developed hence will decrease number of people who need reservation while in caste system these figures are going to increase daily.
posted by Amit at 6:08 PM
15 Comments:
Excellant post.
Yes reservation is something which should be seen as a necessary evil rather than a necessacity.
Agreed that we do still need reservation at this point. But if we start mesuring in terms of reducing reservation then that can act as a barometer of india's overall educational & economical progress.
It should be like after N years we would be reducing resrvation because we donot need it!!
This is something of a norm in some countries which's not necessarily for reservation but for other similar programs.
Excellant Post.
Agreed that we need reservation at this point for overall upliftment but it should be seen as a necessary evil rather than a necessacity.
It should be like that we mesaure in terms of reducing reservation to act as a benchmark for India's overall educational progress. The less we need it the more we are in the right direction and not vice-versa.
this is a nicely written post.
About my views on reservation: I believe some kind of reservation is required to uplift the socially backward section of our society. Reservation to SC/ST is a must for a long time to come, if we have to realize Gandhi ji's dream of eleminating untouchability.
This is also a valid point that benifit of reservation should not be there in promotion or higher studies.And if we are really serious abt getting benifits of reservation percolated to the most backward sections then reservation should not given twice within the same family.
Govt should set up a panel to look into the short comings of the present system, but according to me this is the best possible implementation of reservation policy.
My only nightmare is, that politicians rea using this reservation tool to divide our society for votes..and that may result in civil war.
So fault is not with reservation policies but we dont have able politicians.
"Yes reservation is something which should be seen as a necessary evil rather than a necessacity" lines are best way to describe reservation need.
Few politicians are making system worse for the sake of their profit only. These people can't see beyond their profit. We must give little credit to opposite parties ;) who are so silent as if they don’t exist.
am in cent percent agreement.
a nation which gives no merit meritocracy can never progress.
lets no handicap MAJOR section of our society by reserving seats and killing competitiveness.
Nicely post ...keep it up....i am trying to come up with some more points to give a balanced view (i am not anti reservation and support a holistic approach to bridge the difference between haves and have nots)...will post it here itself...
ciao..
Nice post ...keep it up....i am trying to come up with some more points to give a balanced view (i am not anti reservation and support a holistic approach to bridge the difference between haves and have nots)...will post it here itself...
ciao..
thanks,
would love to have your inputs..
thanks,
would love to have your inputs..
hmmm. Very nice post.
I am agree with your views for reservation policies.
Our present govt is not thiking on these areas to have reservation, only beacuse they need votes.
and In India there are a lot of urban areas where no good institutes are available.
Govt should do emphasis on these things other than providing reservation for OBC/SC/ST on higher education, because only economically satisfied people can reach up to these higher educations.
No benefits for poor children as they cant study well to reach up to these levels.
Thanks.
You are right, these are just votes for which politician are behaving like a blind person. They could not see future. If we go a step ahead, we would find that finally it comes to US to choose such politician. We are also equally responsible for such system.
Ur post is true uptill a great extent and I really apriciate the way in which u want it to be eradicated.. But one think which make me feel irk that One is getting at the same position with 40% markrs where others are failing with 80%marks for the same..
Cant there be sth like frre education for SC/ST/OBCs but no reservation at all at any position..
Coz believe it or not intelligence matters at every stage of life and we cant say no to this.. :)
neways really good goin ...
Yes your suggestions are fairly good; my concern during writing this blog is li’l different from yours.
As compare to cites, villages are far behind from the current movement. They are not aware of these trends in manner as person living in city. This leaves some time lag for people residing in villages and it keeps on increasing until you are not given some preference. Most of SC/ST/OBC population in villages and I feel any one could be there. It is just a luck that I and you are not there. I just want to give such people a chance. It might be possible that you are very right at your point.
hi amit... grt blog. had seen ur comment on my post on reservation sm time back. see ya...
bye.
SRI
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