Reservations for forward classes
Reservations in India are pre-dominantly for the govt. jobs and University education and many organizations are demanding for reservations for forward class poor. My arguments against it are:
- Forward class constitutes 15% of the population. Even if 50% of the seats are reserved, 15% of the population has access to 50% of the postings. So creating a special sub-category will only distort the demography.
- A feudal oppression in society is rampant. Lower caste is denied their basic right of dignity. Reservation for forward caste will catapult the left out oppressors ahead, thus defeating the very cause of reservation.
- Education in India is really economical. Tuition fees are a couple of thousand, loans and scholarships are in abundance. Hardly will you find anyone working part-time to raise tuition fee and rarely anyone drops outs due to economic reasons. For the job, past economic condition is irrelevant as the pays are decent. One needs to be a real moron to not get selected even tough he belongs to so called creamy layer.
- When you give a poor SC/ST a job, university degree, you do not help an individual, but the whole community. He becomes a role model and enlightens his family, relatives and friends about reforms and dignity. However a poor forward class will try to fit himself with his peers and maybe practice caste system for recognition among his peers.
- Reservation for some-one whose parents do not know what education is, who works in adolescence earning bread for his younger sister and whose basic right to dignity is deprived makes sense. Someone who does not know what development is and has no access to knowledge or capital for benefit of those around needs up-liftment not a forward caste fellow.
6 replies on “Reservations for Forward Classes”
Nicely articulated points.
🙂
I never heard about Reservation for forward classes. I have heard about abolishing the concept of reservation.
#1.If there is a reservation for forward classes then it will based on statistics. So there is no question of 50% offering to 15%.
#3.Now that’s not the case. Merit seats for Eng and Medical now costs in order of thousands and lakhs. People can’t even pay this fees.
#4.Role model is not meant for only the SC/ST even forward castes who are poor have a role model if one breaks the barrier.
I am baffeled by the assumption/prejudice. If it happens it’s an induvidual’s problem.
#5.What makes you think that all forward classes are highly educated and they are there to guide the siblings? Puzzled again.
Karthi
Well the article is against the repeated demands that there should be reservations for forward caste poor, which RSS, and lots of other parties are demanding.
1) Addresses to the fact that most of the unreserved seats (>50%) actually are cornered by the forward caste and Brahmins (which actually constitute only 15% of our demography.
2) Most of the seats in governmental institutions are heavily subsidized. Take your college as an example, if money and expenses were a real problem, then you would find lots of students working part time. But only 4-5 students would actually be doing that.
3) Fitting into the system when you get power is a very interesting phenomenon which people always deny. I give you an example for today’s paper which looks a bit diverse, but I feel is applicable in today’s context.
Look India’s foreign policy for that matter. Till this date India always opposed NPT (non-proliferation treaty) for it was heavily biased against the non-nuclear powered nations. Iran and India acted like brothers in NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) opposing this and simultaneously developed nukes. However the first chance India got to get recognition as a nuclear power, it dumped Iran. Today, it even opposes Iran’s civilian nuclear program and talks about invoking clauses of NPT on it. This I would say is disownment.
Another example is that, earlier the small island of Tiawan had the Permanent seat in the Security Council instead of the Communist China. India was the foremost crusaders in making China get its rightful position. However China does not share the same opinion when it comes to India’s claim for permanent seat.
4) Well, if you look at the 2001 demography surveys… you will find the forward castes have the highest percentage of graduates and their per-capita income is many times higher than the country average.
It is very distressing to find such preconceived and orthodox notions on this subject. Nobody seems to have understood or are refusing to understand what the real peoblem is and how to solve it. All the examples and apprehensions expressed are imaginary andn surmises. The time has come to get out of this imbroglio as it is more than 50 years after we obtained indpendence. The time has come to treat and assess everyone equally according to his/her intelligence rather than reserving quotas for some thereby reminding them at each and every step that they are inferior. We should scrap all the quota systems and ensure that everyone can compete for anything in this country and shall be rewarded according to their merit.
To a certain extent we should go out of the way to give a basic education to the so called backward classes upto a level from whereon competition takes over; this need not be on a reservation quota system. Only then we can hope our Country can hope to go forward and become a strong Nation.
Till that time, exploitation will continue to take place and the so called backward classes will take pride to be called so and enjoy the advantages that are available both ways without really contributing any thing material for the Nation’s advancement.
In order to achieve a classless society, there should be only one class – Indian. Let the merit and competence take over and abolish the man made barriers.
@ratnam
Thanks for your very enlightening comments
I totally agree that its our duty to educate everyone. reservation or no reservation… we cannot deny anybody of this basic right.
The most important question that comes in my mind on matters concerning reservation in higher education is:
Even after 4-5 years of rigorous training, education and the fact that the student clears all the exams the faculty still doubts the ability of the student. Why?
a) is it because most of the premier institutes rely of the rigorous selection procedure rather than higher quality of education for their fame?
b) The exams and the grading system is faulty and they cannot filter the sincere from the insincere.
c) or the students, esp. from the reserved category manage to pass the exams, but later in life suffer from a sudden amnesia and forget all what they have learned… hence reducing them to the level of quacks.
One should also not forget that all IITians, IIMs and medical college have a provision where they can force the reserved category students to take a training, hence ensuring that whenever the degree is awarded, the dean who awards is sure that this student is going to be successful in life.
The problem with the reservation debate is that we are mixing too many issues together.
1) the failure of indian education system
2) our fear that if all the backward class is educated, where will we get our maids and nannies
3) our failure to accept the fact that there are more engg, science and arts seats than the number of students. So reservation or no reservation, anybody who seeks a degree will get a degree.