Are OBC quotas the right move?

By Shruta Gupta it
reads as below.
:

The Union HRD Ministry's proposal of 27 per cent reservation for OBC students in
Centrally-funded universities has re-ignited the merit vs caste debate in the
education sector, reviving the furor the Mandal commission recommendation
raised in 1991.
Opinions are clearly divided between those who feel that the reservations are
nothing but a political gimmick and should be opposed at all costs, and those
who say the move will genuinely help lift the status of the backward classes.
The proposed reservation is expected to affect premier education institutions like
the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management
(IIMs), which have already reserved 22.5 per cent seats for scheduled castes and
tribes. If the new recommendations come into place, "general category" students
will have access to just half the seats in these institutions.
Basically I wanted to comment to that article but I came with some suggestion so
I believe this will be good to publish on legalserviceindia where people will
understand more that I want to say about.
I am not against reservation but I am against this type of reservation.
Reservations should not be based on caste. Indeed government has duty to
provide education equally to everybody but when government is asking for
reservation in education, it is actually showing its inability to give education to
everybody with present educational infrastructure. I accept that India is going
through very difficult period where it is expanding its economy. To sustain
economy, educated and skilled labour is necessary. So in my view government
policy should be promoting education for youth and children. The question is not
if subsidy is necessary or not but the question here is to whom and how
government should provide subsidy and how it should give thrust to education
among youth.
Article 15(4) of Indian Constitution read as "Nothing in this article or in clause (2)
of article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the
advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or
for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes." This article was added by
the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951.
To start reforms, parliament need to change 55 years old Article 15(4) of Indian
Constitution and replace it with something like this - "Nothing in this article or in
clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision
for the advancement of any socially, educationally and economically backward
classes of citizens without depriving other classes of citizen's equality of
opportunity."

If you read my proposal carefully I have added "economically backward class" in

the proposed article and remove "or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled
Tribes." Also I have added "without depriving other classes of citizen's equality of
opportunity" in end. Let me explain all three proposed change.
(1) By adding "economically backward class", I am making provision for
government to give subsidy to poor people regardless of their caste.
(2) By removing "or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes", I want
to remove caste politics from India. It will not allow rich but Scheduled Castes
and the Scheduled Tribes citizen of India to get subsidy, as I have seen so many
SCST people having big properties but still getting aid from government on the
name of caste, and I also have seen so many general class people who even
dont have enough resource to earn as much money to feed themselves. I don't
want to remove aid from poor people. That is why I added "economically
backward class" in article 15(4).
(3) By adding "without depriving other classes of citizen's equality of
opportunity", I am disabling government to make law that can give unequal
privileges to poor people. Instead government will only have option to provide
financial aid to poor people who want to do something. Government can give
them full aid from study to rent of house for study.
By this way those needy people can get protection by government but they will
have to show merit. If after getting aid, they failed in college or school, their aid
can be stopped.
On educational system, I would say that government needs to spent more money
on educational infrastructure as classrooms in colleges are less then needed.
Government needs to open more universities and more colleges or at least give
supports who are trying to open new colleges and universities. India today needs
more professional education without degrading primary education. Private
institutions are good option. It is Indias primary educational system that is
enabling Indian graduate ahead of other foreign graduate at aboard. Definitely
we need to improve our primary educational system too. We need to give our
children an environment where then can stand and speak in front of people.
We need to give aid to deprived citizens, but we should not deprive others who
have merit. Recent proposal of OBC quota is one similar to proposal of the than
HRD minister of BJP government Mr. Murlimanohar Joshi. My suggestion is, give
financial aid on basis of performance instead of seat reservation

Is the Current system of Reservation justified- STRONG NO

Should there be reservation in India- STRONG YES
What govt should understand is that BACKWARD PEOPLE != LOWER CASTE

Its no secret that in india, many people do require reservation to come at par with other
classes of society. They just don't get proper opportunities, maybe because of caste,
maybe because of economic conditions or something else.
Also, for years, backward classes were abused in India, they were not allowed to enter
temples, sit with others or even a touch of them was considered impure. I am highly
ashamed of what my ancestors did and backward classes should be compensated
somehow.
All this being said, i strongly feel that after all these years, Indian govt not been able to
make a proper reservation policy that gives reservation to only those who deserve it, is
the biggest failure of it.
There should be measures determining a persons backwardness, not his name.
Maybe his family income, family's education or something like that.
In india, even if a person becomes a collector, or CEO of some company, then also his
son gets reservation just because of his caste, cant really see how are such people
stopped by society in achieving equal opportunities.
In India, people fight to be backward.
But, indian govt have never given a damn about small things like injustice or equal
opportunities for all. Its all about Vote banks, and thats how it will be .
Also, i heard that they are now trying to get reservation in job promotion also, that is, if
two people have same job, same income, same everything, one wil get promoted far
earlier than another, just because of his caste. INCREDIBLE INDIA,eh .

Do we still need a reservation or quota system in India?

March 13, 2013

by Ramandeep Kaur

Whether to have a reservation/quota system or not is still a debatable question in India. The
Indian Constitution has a law for the same and according to this; reservation has been made
to bring underprivileged classes at par with privileged or general ones. There are numerous
reservations like reservation for women, reservation for physically challenged, reservation for
economically backward class, reservation for Scheduled Castes etc. Though, reservation
system is an evident discrimination, but it had been started with a very good objective of
uplifting the socially backward society to give them equality of opportunities. But with time its
meaning and the way it has been taken by the people has left many of us to believe that it
has stopped delivering for what it was made. People have started misusing it. There are
many examples of people making false documents just to get a seat in a college or a job.
This leaves the more eligible candidate to give their seat to a person belonging to a reserve
category.

What has led to the formulation of reservation system in India?

The deep rooted caste system in India is the actual cause of the reservation system.
Dominantly, the skin colour of the person was taken into account at the time when caste

system came into being, like the fairer ones enjoyed being Brahmins or upper caste and the
darker ones were Shudras or lower caste. This led to the total segregation of our society and
to equalize this, the idea of reservation came into existence after independence. Hence in
1950 the quota for backward classes was made and from time to time many new quotas and
reservations have been added to this.
But still, the condition of so called underprivileged sections in India are the same even that
we have crossed so many decades of independence. Reservation is working in the opposite
direction to its main objective as is demarcating the society further. It is being used to uplift
one section of the society at the cost of another, which is not fair. Instead of this there should
be equal opportunities for all. Moreover, a capable candidate does not need any certificate of
being from a lower caste to prove their worth. It is his mind, education and ability to compete
that can bring change in life. Taking a seat just by showing your under privileged certificate
wont give you anything, but just the degree or a job.
Also the reservation system in India is creating a workforce which is not capable enough to
compete at the global level. India needs people for growth and development but reservation
is adding undeserving candidates as well. So I think reservation system should be
demolished and if the government really wants to uplift the underprivileged sections of the
society then a well-balanced policies should be formulated. First of all such sections of the
society should be clearly identified that need development and financial aids. Then to uplift
them free education, or incentives and financial assistance should be provided. Once done
let them face the competition, true competition. Make them capable, show them theright
path and infuse a fighting spirit in them as no one is against healthy competition.
There was a quota system in US as well, but it was abolished long ago. But it does not mean
that they are not working for the underprivileged in their society. For admission and
appointment purposes, now they have point systems in which people from backward regions
are given some extra points but, not a certain number of seats. So, though the government
is helping the needy, but it is not at all discriminating or snatching away the rights of eligible
candidates.
Also from time to time such reforms or laws must be evaluated by experts and their impact
on the development of under privileged and overall society must be assessed. Also,
calculate the way these are changing the per capita income, number of people below
poverty line etc. Politicians should stop using reservation system as a gimmick to have a
permanent vote bank. Education should not be a part of politics. Instead nurture the saplings
right from childhood for their bright future and then there wont be any need of so called
reservation system in India.

Reservations in educational system

Outline:
Introduction

Need for reservation in the past

Current scenario
Solution

The term Reservation has been doing the rounds within the Indian media circuit of late
owing to the government decision to implement 27% quota for the OBCs in the
educational institutions of higher learning.

When our country achieved independence, a large section of the society was leading a
miserable life. They had been exploited for ages and the false beliefs in the society at
that time further worsened their condition. The government of that day introduced the
concept of reservations so that there would be equal progress of all sections of the
society. Over the years, the condition of the people of reserved categories has improved
at a fast rate while that of the middle class, general or open category people has
remained more or less the same. At a time like this, the governments decision to bring
out legislation to implement a 27% quota for OBCs adds further fuel to the fire.

Currently, as per the government policy, 15% of the students admitted to universities
must be scheduled castes and for the scheduled tribes there is a reservation of about
7.5%. Other than this, the state governments also follow their own reservation policies
respectively based upon the population constitution of each state. So nearly 50% seats
are reserved. The general category people are being subjugated with only 50% of the
seats.

Today when a student applies for an admission in any university, the admission forms are
filled with questions like Are you SC/ST or OBC or General Category? How does it
matter which category does he belong to, what matters is his merit. A category cannot
decide whether he is eligible for admission or not. There many economically worse off
children belonging to the forward classes but they cannot get the fruits of such
reservation merely by virtue of belonging to the general category. Sometimes these
children belonging to the backward classes do not even deserve and still possess the
necessary merit as against a child who studied very hard for months to get a seat,
thereby snatching away that seat just because he comes from a particular religion or
caste for which our government provides reservation.

Reservations are nothing but means to prosper the vote banks of politicians. They are
hindering the countrys growth, development and competency in all aspects. Reservation
is creating disparity and differences amongst the people. By reserving one category
against another creates a feeling of division which is now resulting in a chaos with every
small section of the society asking for it.

However, reservation for women at university and school level is the one thing that is in
order. Recently, in papers there was a case that a girl belonging to the rural area
committed suicide because her parents did not let her pursue for higher studies even
after good score in the boards. And this is just one case there are a lot of girls in India
who are forced to leave there schools and get married. Giving reservations to women
encourages not only the children to study hard but also the parents to send there
children for higher studies.

Also I think reservations should be made on the basis of economical conditions. The kind
of reservation policy that our government follows does nothing but divide the society.

"The reservation system only divides the society leading to

discrimination and conflicts between different sections. It is oppressive

and does not find its basis in casteism."

There are simple solutions to this like making education mandatory till age 15 and
providing facilities for education for all at early ages rather than university levels.
Admissions at university levels should strictly be on the basis of credit and not
reservation. Even at university level they should provisions for economically backward
sections only. Exceptions should be made for women.