Reservation System
Vijay Mohan. D
Hi,
I have written an article for BM on reservation system in India. I have attached the same to this email.
Regards,
Vijay
"Join Bharat Uday Mission, the party for all new indians."
http://www.bharatudaymission.org/
vivek claire
The Supreme Court Constitution Bench abolished reservation quota in the un-aided privately run educational institutions in its historical judgement on 12.8.05. In this judgement, the then Hon'ble Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Shri R.C. Lahoti ruled that Government cannot enforce job reservation or seat reservation in un-aided minority and non-minority educational institutions. The All India Confederation of SC/ST Organizations and several political and apolitical organizations strongly condemned this decision. The Parliament passed the 104th Constitution Amendment Bill. The HRD Minister, Shri Arjun Singh played an important role in bringing about this amendment but despite this, minority organizations were kept outside the pale of reservation.
The HRD Minister, Shri Arjun Singh has written to the State Governments for framing reservation rules and regulations for the educational institutions. After the 104th Constitution Amendment, reservation quota for OBCs in IITs and IIMs has been fixed at 27%. It may be pointed here that already there is 15% and 7.5% reservation quota for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates respectively in IITs and IIMs which comes to 22.5% for both SC/ST people. Thus the combined reservation for SC, ST and OBC candidates as of now is 49.5%. While opposing the reservation policy, some people argue that the basis of reservation should be economic backwardness irrespective of any caste or creed. According to them, there is no justification for caste-based reservation even after 59 years of Independence. Another argument that is being put forward is that the children of well-to-do SC/ST/OBC families are taking undue advantage of the caste based reservation quota and that it will have an adverse impact on the economic development of the country particularly when the economy is on the fast track. People who hold this viewpoint are totally oblivious of the oppression, suppression, social ostracisation and discrimination of the SC/ST/OBC community over the millennia. The reservation quota has to be viewed in the backdrop of the facts that most of the children belonging to SC/ST/OBC community do not quite often get two morsels of food before going to school, what to talk of shoes, uniforms, books an d other basic necessities for continuing their education. Umpteen number of instances have come to light when SC/ST/OBC children are segregated while mid-day meals are served or when children belonging to other communities refuse to sit with them while taking meals. At certain places, dalit women were not allowed to cook mid-day meals. Dalit Pradhans and Sarpanches are not allowed to unfurl national flag. What to talk of the well water, they are deprived of pond water also. Even the IAS and IPS officers continue to face discrimination on caste lines in their own villages and are not allowed to own property in the vicinity of land belonging to the upper caste people who have still not been able to change their mind-set despite the changed scenario.
Why don't the protagonists of merit compare themselves with the strides being made by the United States and other Western countries in the field of Science and Technology. Till now, 77.5% of seats in the IITs/IIMs were filled up on the basis of merit only. Despite this, we have not been able to win a single Nobel prize so far nor made any significant invention or discovery so that we could raise our heads with pride in comity of nations. Even the small things or gadgets of day-to-day use, like toothbrush, toothpaste, newspaper, telephone, car etc. which our form a part of our daily morning chores, have simply been copied/adopted from the West. Is it not sheer exploitation on the part of IIM/IIT graduates on whom Government spends lakhs of rupees per student every year that soon after completing their education, they go abroad for a lucrative job on the phoney pretext of the lack of research infrastructure in the country. How is it that they find fault with the system only after fleecing the public who invest huge sums in setting up IIMs/IITs? If lack of facilities is really the cause for their leaving the country, then why did not go abroad even for completing their Engineering or MBA degree?
We find dozens of Nobel Laureates being produced by reputed institutions like Harvard University where as we have none who has come out of our IITs. Even with the increase in reservation quota upto 49.5% resulting in decrease in the unreserved seats, IITs and IIMs will still churn out thousands of IIT Engineerrs and MBA graduates from out of the candidates belonging to the unreserved quota. Their number will be greater than the number of Engineers and MBAs produced by Europe keeping in view the vast population of country. Thus quite a few hundred graduates should be available for research and inventions; yet we stand no where when we compare ourselves with the progress taking place in the West in the field of Science and Technology. Let us take it for a while that Government is not able to provide research laboratories and libraries etc. of the level as existing in the West although it is not fact. But in institutions like AIIMS where state-of-the-art research facilities are available, the equipment and facilities worth crores of rupees are rotting gathering dust and the valuable resources are being squandered without any worthwhile results. Many of the inventions of the World like generation of electricity conceptualized while flying a kite, Archimedes principle that a body immersed in a fluid is subject to an upward force equal in magnitude to the weight of fluid it displaces, invention of steam engine by James Watt based on the steam generated in a small container, the theory of gravity propounded by Newton while observing the fall of an apple from a tree and so on, did not need any big research laboratories.
Our social structure is such that most of the people are deeply steeped in the quagmire of social evils, orthodoxy and discrimination because of which we are not able to make any significant headway in Science and Technology. We have got to change this mind-set and out-dated preconceived notions for making a quantum jump in the area of Science and Technology. After all, in this vast country, with a population of over one billion people, we have sufficient resources to produce world class Scientists worthy of becoming Nobel Laureates or produce scores of sportspersons who can win a couple of Olympic gold medals. Certainly we cannot hold responsible "reservation" for our poor performance in these areas.
Somehow, there is a feeling among certain people that if the poor and Dalits are given admission into IITs/IIMs based on reservation, it will bring down the academic standard of these institutions. Let us see if this premise holds good in similar situations elsewhere. Harvard University in the United States is considered to be the Mecca for knowledge. The University decided to identify women, non-whites and others belonging to the minority community to give them admission into the medical faculty and also to provide jobs in this faculty. At present, in all, there are 8402 teachers in the medical department, out of which 1150 are non-whites whose percentage works out to 13.68 and there are 2747 women teachers whose percentage works out to more than 32. They also call it a doctrine of diversity. Even in the face of such a study, can we say that reservation of seats for SC/ST/OBC candidates in IITs/IIMs will bring down the academic standards? The petition of a White student filed before the Supreme Court of the United States on the ground that he had scored more marks in the qualifying examination than a Non-white student, he had not been given admission to the Law course in the Michigan University was discharged and the admission of the non-White student who had scored less marks than the White student in the qualifying examination was upheld on the basis of reservation.
The reservation policy may not solve the basic problems facing the country but it will certainly help in bringing the ST/SC/OBC community into the mainstream of the society. It is all the more essential to do so because of suppression, oppression and discrimination against the SC/ST/OBC people over the millennia and we cannot expect any miracles in this area in a short span of 60 years of reservation and other measures. There is, therefore, no sense in raising the bogey of abolishing reservation for SC/ST/OBC community. We should not forget one fact that the march of a nation towards development and reconstruction of the country is not possible with the cooperation of just a handful of people or some groups but with the cooperation of all the groups of different people who have to be involved in this gigantic effort. We should also not forget that peace and stability are pre-requisites for an enlightened and progressive society. We have the typical case of Bihar where in the absence of peace and stability, there has been a large scale exodus of people to Delhi and elsewhere because conditions were just not conducive at all in Bihar for the people to work for their advancement. Again, as compared to the developed countries, the avenues of growth are not adequate in our country. It is for this reason that people in this country always clamour to move to the United States and other European countries and lakhs of Indians have already immigrated. Moreover, the British concept of merit based on the high percentage of marks at the school level and that too with the help of qualified teachers and other facilities might have to be redefined.
It will be more appropriate to have reservation based on social rather than economic basis in a country or society which is divided and sub-divided into so many castes and sub castes even though there should be some reservation for the economically backward people irrespective of caste or creed. Now that the country is on the path to economic recovery, reservation will further speed up the process of development because Engineers, Doctors and others from the SC/ST/OBC community whose ancestors were virtually not having any movable or immovable assets would spend more of their income on creating assets for themselves. The market will get a big push with increase in their purchasing power. Thus, with the reservation quota for SC/ST/OBC community in IITs/IIMs, not only the unity and integrity of the country will be further strengthened but it will also help in fulfilling the objectives for which it came into existence. Thus the protagonists of anti-reservation may reconsider their stand with a view to strengthen unity, integrity and prosperity of the country.
Dr. Udit Raj
National Chairman, All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations
& Indian Justice Party
B-113, Sarvodaya Enclave, New Delhi-17
Tel: 26960022, 26534559
Email: bud...@ndf.vsnl.net.in
Hi,
I have written an article for BM on reservation system in India. I have attached the same to this email.
Regards,
Vijay
"--
Er. Vivek Umrao Glendenning
B.Tech (Mech.)
* Former Researcher- Decentralized Energy Systems
(Operational Management Group)-
Indian Institute of Management (IIM).
www.geocities.com/umraovivek/mypage.html
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* Autonomous Thinker and Researcher
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Growth and Decentralization of Power
Vijay Mohan. D
Hi,
Many of the things mentioned below might be very correct, w.r.t facts and figures, but the simple fact remains that the reservation problem is not a question of who oppressed whom in the past or the present. It is a question of what is right and wrong morally. Agreed that SC/ST people were oppressed in the past, but it does not mean that the current generation should pay a penalty for that. There is simply no logic in saying that a general candidate who got 500 marks more than the reserved candidate should study civil engineering while the other guy gets to do computer science.
If we do need to encourage them, and empower them, then as I have mentioned, Govt should start special institutions where they can be educated and brought up to std. The answer for empowerment is not reservation or quotas, but to help them so that, they can compete with everyone else and get the courses or jobs which they really deserve as per their capability.
Regards,
Vijay
"Join Bharat Uday Mission, the party for all new indians."
vivek claire
Society is not being moved by us, who are technocrates or doing jobs. Society has been run by last man of society. I am not SC/ST. I didnt get reservation, my wife is an australian scientist Dr Claire. My children will not enjoy reservation.
But i support reservation. It is not a matter of morality. Morality can be redefined any time. It is a matter of social welfare, it is not a matter of proving brain/ intelligence etc. IITs / IIMs are not made by individuals these are made and developped by common society of india. the reputation of IIT/ IIM are so high from first year, why, because common society recognised those. a society cant improve itself, if it will not think for its last man. untouchability still exists in india in some states.
if it is a matter of brain then why, NARAYAN MURTI opposed the fee of IIMs. i am not fighting with you. i request you pl remove your conditioning, go to interior villages of india. feel them by living with them in the same insecurity.
you will get more and real light.
it is not a matter of ego.
love and friendship hug to you
yours true friend
vivek
Vijay Mohan. D
Dear Friend,
I beg to disagree. Society is moved by all individuals within it who make themselves heard, and bring in change. Morality is an absolute, just as right and wrong is absolute and cannot be determined either by the number of people agreeing to it or opposing it. The truth is always the truth, and it definitely does not depend on numbers or emotions. Even if I am the lone person in the crowd and 1000 people surrounding me tell me that they are right because of their numbers, I will not agree.
Truth is not relative, it is absolute.
If I am saying the truth, even if Narayan Murthy or even George Bush opposes me, I will still say the truth. I am not afraid of it, and if I am saying wrong, I will admit it, however bad, it may make me look.
The reputation of IIT’s and IIM’s are due to the people who pass out from there, go out and then accomplish great things. If it were truly something that is bestowed upon it by society only and not from their caliber, then even the IIT’s and IIM’s would be like the Govt/ Pvt Colleges in many of whom students spend more time doing time pass and going on strikes rather than doing their duty which is studies. I know after first hand working with IIT graduates, how capable they are. If a Newton has not been born in India, it is purely because our education system is flawed, and merely teaches students to mug up and then write the same thing by heart in the answer papers of the examination. The biggest proof of this is that, actually none of the greatest innovators in the world have ever actually done their work academically. Look at Thomas Alva Edison, Nikolay Tesla, or even for that matter Albert Einstein who wrote the General Theory of Relativity while he was working as a clerk in the Patent Office. The Wright Brothers literally invented the entire field of aerospace engineering by themselves, building the wing, the tail and even the engine by themselves. The problem with our education system is really that parents give importance to studies, and students take it seriously, but they way the subjects are taught simply cannot create innovation in anybody. They teach the entire life’s work of Boyle or Newton in a few days, without mentioning how they came to the conclusions or what mistakes they did while arriving at the conclusion. Maybe a student was unable to answer an equation properly – but still should get full marks, because Newton himself made the same calculation error the first time? Education is a long story by itself, and now that we are discussing it, I will write a blog about it shortly in: http://03.indiatimes.com/shaayari
I have seen first hand, how just a small group of students can corrupt the entire system in a College. Again, I am not pointing any fingers at lower/ upper class people. Anybody can be bad or good; it purely depends on the individual himself and what he wants to do.
I know the condition in the interior villages; I know the pain of the common man, I used to spend a lot of time in my mother’s native village in Karnataka and I have always liked staying in such places away from the city, listening to what the common man has to say about his problems. If we have to resolve their problems, the first step is in completely abolishing this entire system where we differentiate between people of any caste, creed or relegion.
How do we do that?
By removing this as criteria everywhere. Let no Govt form or Pvt Company form ask for the caste of the candidate. Let it be banned – asking people which caste or creed or relegion they come from. Treat everyone as equal, and then when a person who comes from the lower classes enters college – nobody will ask him what his rank is – to find out his caste and to belittle him behind his back. If today, young people are caste conscious, it is more because of this reservation system. They point fingers at their own classmates and say “he got into this seat because he is an OBC or he is an SC/ST”.
Why do we need all these differences? Do you really think, that reminding a person everyday in all kinds of forms “I am OBC, I am SC/ST” is going to make him feel better? – or make society more integrated in any manner?
Swami Vivekananda says that self respect should never be taken from a person. But isn’t that the very thing which we do daily? – It is better to be a clerk and have self respect than being an IAS officer without respect. Dr. Ambedkar’s story is itself the biggest proof of all the troubles which a lower class person has to face in life.
I have read Mulk Raj Anand’s “The Untouchable”, which is a very touching story about a lower class person whose job is to clean the toilets in the city. I have read in rediff.com, a story with the headline SC/ST King conquers hockey, upon which I immediately sent an email to those guys admonishing them very heavily, with the result that they took down that story within an hour.
Whether a person is a auto driver or sweeper or whoever he is, I want to see the day when people will treat everyone with equal respect, and that is only possible when there is no kind of discrimination at all. In any manner or form.
Amit
For past so many days I am reading various mails regarding Reservation
System and its ills. Interestingly most of us gave personal and
one-sided views. Remember clearly that we are not here to represent our
caste, religion or region and we are neither here to impose our
personal views but to think, discuss and reach a consensus as to what
is best to our citizens and country. We are here for the Nation.
It has to be presumed that the socially and economically backward class
may not be aware of how they can uplift themselves. It becomes the
moral duty of the intellects to think of what will help our brothers,
impartially and without any prejudice.
We all know the pro and cons of the reservation system, we also know
the school of thoughts that oppose them and support them and it is
illogical to discuss the same, as it will not give us any constructive
output helpful to us. It also cannot be denied that there exists
casteism in India, the root of all evils, which also becomes one of the
reasons for reservations.
We all have consensus that the socially and economically backward class
should be uplifted. We all agree that every person must be treated with
dignity and equality. Practically we all see the opposite of this. We
all will agree that there should not be any economic gap and every one
must enjoy a decent standard of living.
Forget about the backward class, let us think of everyone it will also
include them.
1. Compulsory and free primary and secondary education. Providing means
and environment essential for learning.
2. Food (RDA), pure water and proper shelter to everyone.
3. Legal aid, speedy justice; checks and balance for the police system
to ensure might does not become right.
4. Employment for all; if not unemployment benefits.
5. Dignity to work.
6. Affordable health care facilities to all.
7. Affordable higher education and change in education system to
produce thinkers rather than examinees.
8. Basic amenities and infrastructure in all villages. Abolish the
difference between rural and urban areas.
9. Equal standard of living.
10. Building individuals who will think of the last common man in all
decisions rather than thinking of other criterias and
11. Removal and prevention of all types of injustice.
These are some points that will help in bringing equality. You can add
other that you feel will develop our nation. If everyone has a decent
standard of living, means of livelihood, dignity, and equality there
will not be any need of reservation even if we fail to remove caste
system. Casteism is a fact.
A developed nation is a nation where all citizens are equal in all
respects. What developments we make in different fields are immaterial
if we cannot give everyone a decent standard of living.
For us having or not having reservation must not be an issue. We are
here with high aims and ideals. Ideals of wiping tears of all eyes from
our country and if possible from the world. Such issue will not help
our mission. Let us think of eradicating the main causes that give rise
to many such different issues.
All issues are interlinked and we cannot solve issues individually. If
we start thinking of issues individually, it will not take us anywhere
as they will create many other problems. Let us concentrate on how we
can achieve the above goals.
I think it will be better if we prepare a blue print of development of
our nation than thinking on individual issues. Overall and equal
development will remove many such issues. For me castesim, poverty and
caste system is an issue, which is the cause of reservations.
Jai Hind
Amit Karande.
"We have only one Passion,
Rise of a Great Nation."
rishikes...@gmail.com
http://bharatudaymission.org/forum/index.php?topic=187.0 in the same
context.