30 April, 2006

Say no to Mandal 2

The proposed increase in OBC reservation from 22.5% to 27% in premier educational institutes in India has created the big students' uprising here. (The photo is from AFP taken  during the students' uprising against reservation). The proposal seems to be politically motivated to garner up the vote share for congress in the election period.
 
It's government duty to provide equal oppurtunities for all its citizens to lead a normal life. A child from economically backward class has to face lot of challenges in family. When comes to competing with peer group in getting a good education, he/she stands in a disadvantage position. Historically reservation started to supplement this difference. Few percent of seats in educational institution are reserved in quotas for different segment of the people.
 
Mind my words usage when describing, it is economically backward class and it's not caste. This is the place where politics has enter into reservation policy. Linking caste with class is the historical blunder. It's like generalising people based on their sun signs- say Taureans are soft hearted people, lets reserve 15% of management seats for them. Funny, isn't it? Giving reservations based on the caste itself is a joke, besides that these stupid politicians keeps on increasing the quota.
 
The creamy layer idealogy essentially means there are different segments of people in same caste in different economic classes. When you prefer caste based reservation system, the whole idea of supplementing those disadvantaged people in their challenges gets defeated. So, what can be the possible solution?
 
Lets take the good points in arguments of those for and against the reservation. Lets develop a situation where consensus in a good reservation policy be arrived at. My take would be - lets categorise people based on their economy and livelihood. Propose reservation based on economic classes. Update people's status based on constant feedback and update their status. It's not that impossible. Our census does this segregation and lets improve on the system. We have the all the essential system in place, refining the system based on consensus is what is needed.
 


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6 comments:

gP said...

I support you on this! Education must be free, safe, and unrestricted to everyone.

Nirek said...

@Gp. Thanks. Finally i found one article to post to earth2050 group. you shd be happy now... ;)

R Girls said...

You are right. Education should be common to all and and the reservations should be abs based on the economic constraints and not caste based.In my opinion there should be no column for caste or religion at all in any forms. But to dream of those days are decades and decades ahead. So just more than a "Sigh" this should be addressed vigourously.

Nirek said...

@ barbie
yeah. but that day is not far off. we have great leader like manmohan in top, jus a matter of system design and consesus management. it shdn't be tough call to take....
but alas. opposition can make big fuss out of this and can play politics. sad part of it...;(

Nirek said...

@emptymind
cant we guys do something to clean this up? its getting worsen day in and day out. shd stop these stupid politics or caste/religinion based politics.

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