Reservation - My Views

I have always wondered why we Indians feel so bad when a white skinned American says that dark people are inferior to white or when a European says that Asians are substandard as compared to them, after all, we have always strongly believed, since eons, in the caste/creed/community based division of meritocracy. But if today we are reasonable enough to dismiss the above remarks as baseless and exclaim with pride that Indians are equally meritorious, we should also be sensible enough to accept the fact that the people who belong to the oppressed castes are also equally talented, intelligent and meritorious.
Agreeing to that, we should next focus our attention to the fact that SC, ST and OBCs combined constitute more than 75% of the total population of India but their representation in fields like Medicine, Science and Technology, Law and others that require rigorous training and merit is hardly noticeable. What could be the reason for such a disparity if they are equally meritorious?

Well, in my personal opinion it is not the lack of merit that keeps these people below par with their general counterparts, rather it is the lack of opportunities these people get. If we just give a casual glance at the Indian history of past thousand years, the fact that these oppressed classes were treated like animals by the so called high castes will not escape our eyes. These people hardly had any money to feed themselves twice a day, wear anything that could be classified more than a rag and live in the houses with crumbling walls and dripping roofs. They had been denied education, freedom to trade or any other such opportunity. The tyranny was to the extent that these people were not even allowed inside the temples and more shockingly were even denied treatment by the so called high caste doctors and vaidhs. These segments, thus, had accepted being treated like animals as their destiny and had succumbed to their fate.
At the time of independence, senior leaders and intellectuals of India; in order to realize their dream of holistic development of India and ensuring proportional representation from all segments of the society decided to implement caste based reservations as a means to encourage weaker segment to contribute towards the development on India. Keeping in mind that there are a lot many people who have been denied the basic human rights for centuries together, the committee concluded that some relaxations need to be provided, against their background, to the lower castes so that they get a fair playground while competing against their general caste counterparts. It has to be borne in mind at this junction that the basis behind reservations was NOT the poor background of these castes but the total lack of exposure and deprivation from opportunities.
Some people argue that developed economies like US do not have any such system. But these people should not forget two things:
1. US is a capitalistic economy while India is a Socialist. It is not the principle of a capitalistic economy to ensure a fair distribution of goods and opportunities while it forms the underlying basis of a Socialistic economy.
2. Even though a capitalistic economy, the US still believes in 'commitment to diversity' in all its offices and institutes to ensure that people are not left out just because of their caste, creed, religion, age, sex. Kalpana Chawla was selected to NASA ahead of other more meritorious candidates under this principle.

Now we have completed more than 50 years with reservations well in place. The conspicuous difference it has brought about in the society can also be noticed easily. It has helped to achieve a more balanced representation from different segments of the society. Also, it has given a person of lower caste the opportunity to rise up to the general castes, work shoulder to shoulder with them and more importantly, the self esteem to look him straight into the eyes and say I am no less than you!! Those who say that reservations have failed to achieve their purpose should meet people who have used this opportunity to its full and from their dismal background have come to hold a respectable and commanding office today.

I was motivated to write this because of the furor caused by the government's decision to introduce for OBCs in IITs/IIMs/AIIMS. With so many protest march being organized all over the country, I wondered if the move was really a good one. Once on the TV I saw a medico girl with a placard saying "Don't sacrifice life for caste" and another one saying "Respect Merit, Respect Life". Then a cartoon in a famous newspaper had a patient being pulled on a wheelchair by a nurse towards an OBC ward, the patient was desperately trying to get away while the nurse was consoling him saying that this OBC is not what you think...it means....(some medical terminology).
I hardly see any point in such arguments put forth by the protesting students and such cartoonists (newspapers).
I agree to the fact that students who avail reservations get relaxations for age limit, minimum marks secured in 12th, and performance in entrance examinations. But once the student is inside the college he attends the same lectures, he reads from the same books, he performs the same set of practical, he takes the same exams and his copies are checked by the same professors. There are no relaxations as far as passing from the institute is concerned, the relaxations are only restricted to the entry into these colleges. So, if a person has performed good enough to pass from that college and the examination system of the college thinks he is fit enough to be a doctor/engineer then I too think that he is fit to be one and if he is not suitable to be one, he will not be able to pass the examinations conducted by the college. But if people still doubt the capabilities of a person who has successfully met the minimum criteria to obtain a degree then it raises serious questions about the efficacy of the examination system of the colleges and universities and bodies like IMA (Indian Medical Association) and MCI (Medical Council Of India). And if the system is not efficient enough to filter out incapable people then a general category doctor needs to be feared equally but if the system is fine, then why such arguments?

People also have come forward totally overthrowing the idea of reservations on caste basis; they argue if there should be reservation it should be given to the poor people. Well, firstly what is the guarantee that same people will not raise their eyebrows if reservations indeed are made only for poor. Also, the policies to run the country cannot be formulated based upon the whims of certain section of people. Secondly, there is around 65-70% of Indian population still living below poverty line and SC/ST/OBC combined make around 75% of the Indian population. Do the numbers tally? Coincidence.. I don't think so!! And third and the most important point, as I said previously as well, reservations were not introduced to eradicate poverty. Poverty is a different problem altogether and there are different programs and agenda for its eradication.

I've heard many a times people saying that provide scholarships to the oppressed categories but don't reserve seats for them. What a noble thing to do if we had US like education system in place. But unfortunately that is not the case. In India, as we all know, it is almost impossible to get into an educational institute of good reputation unless you go through a rigorous and of course very costly 'coaching' conducted by numerous coaching institutes for the entrance exam of almost every prestigious institute. Such a coaching requires a lot of time, minimum of one year of dedicated training. People do this coaching while in class 12th while many others do it after 12th. Such coaching, even by the not so famous coaching institutes, costs dearly. The rough estimate is around 50k per year to 1 lakh per year. It can even be more.
My question is - who is going to provide scholarship for such coaching?
Does a general category student become more meritorious if his parents had the money to spend on his coaching?
If possible, introduce an education system in place that ensures that students get into colleges depending upon their true merit rather than based on some well directed and lavish training for a particular entrance exam and if this is not possible, let the reservations be there to provide a fair playground.

One thing that amuses me about the current protests is - in all the private colleges in India, there is considerable number of seats put aside for management quota, for NRI quota and for payment seats. In simple terms, this means: Pay the money, buy the seat!!
Why has this country never seen any protest march against these seats?
Is it because it is the same students who are protesting against reservation are the most avaricious bidders when such seats are auctioned?
There are relaxations for reserved category students but there are still some minimum criteria that need to be satisfied to get an admission into a college. For money seats, its not so, you pay the money and buy the seat.
Is this system not compromising the merit?? If not then how come reservations compromise the merit and if yes, why no protests against this system?
Is it because the payment system serves the need of those who are protesting against the reservations?

But I also feel that the current system of reservation is obsolete and it is not fully serving its purpose. For example, I cannot understand what is the need for reservation in jobs (both, public and private). You gave a person the chance to get into good colleges, on relaxed norms; and after graduating from a good college the person should look for the job on his own. Providing reservation in jobs means that you believe that the person who studied in a good college still is not competent enough; that would be doubting the quality of education provided in these colleges.
Also, I feel that the reservation criteria need to be changed on a periodic basis. Currently, it is being availed by the members of those families that could avail it in the intial stages. After a generation or two of well educated people in the same family, there is enough exposure and infrastructure available for the new generations to be at par with general category students. If government provides reservation to such people then the underlying principle of reservations is compromised; which I don't think should happen.

According to the present situation, I have a reservation system in mind that I will put down here. I think this system addresses all the issues (the valid ones) that are being raised in every corner of the country.
The system should have the following guidelines:

- The percentages of the reservation could be maintained the way they are. In case the percentages are changed, it should be borne in mind that general caste students don't have to bear the brunt. Number of general seats should be, after nomalization, be maintained.
- There should be no reservation in jobs, both public and private. There should also be no reservation for PG studies unless of course, a specialized coaching for such purpose is more or less imperative.
- Reservation should not be only caste based. It should also be ensured that only those of the reserved castes get the reservation who actually need it as per the basic principle.
- Quota seats that could not find a deserving candidate should not go waste. It makes total sense to offer those seats to general students. But a transparent and fool-proof system will be required to ascertain that.
- Also, I believe that there should be a system in place to periodically monitor if all the castes specified as reserved are growing or is the reservation being utilized only by certain strong castes within the reserved castes.

I think that would be all.