Reservations (Aarakshan)

Today in this ‘free’ country, I believe candidates who are more deserving should get the opportunity irrespective of his Religion and caste. What Aarakshan or Reservation does is that it gives opportunities to the candidates from socially backward classes at the cost of depriving the other candidates, who are not socially backward, the ‘equality of opportunity’. I don’t really understand why there is reservation in colleges, universities and centres of educational excellence.  Is it because the government wants to uplift the backward classes? Yes, the development of backward classes is an area of concern, but reservation as an instrument for this development speaks of the inability to impart better primary school-level education to everyone. The admissions should be completely on ‘merit’ basis. I would like to make it clear that I am not against reservation but I am against the kind of reservation. It was said in the movie ‘Aarakshan’- talk of ‘merit’ only when everyone starts from the same level. This is exactly what I think should be done. Often, it is seen that people make through good institutes through reserved seats without having adequate knowledge base to be able to cope up with the syllabus of these institutes which in a way leads to the decline in quality of education. So, it is essential to focus on building a strong base for ‘everyone’ and then allowing free competition to get admissions in colleges. In order to help those who are deprived, we must not deprive those with merit.

Here’s an example from my experience. In FIITJEE you are required to pay huge tuition fees even after getting some scholarship. This might not be affordable by backward classes. FIITJEE selected 40 students (after a test) under SC/ST/OBC categories and provided them coaching free of cost. So, everyone comes to the same level, getting access to same faculties. Now when the results of IIT comes, the one with 5000 AIR gets a low branch in a low ranked IIT and the one with AIR 6500 gets a good branch in one of the top IITs. Is it justified? Isn’t this injustice, inequality? The need of the hour is, to provide facilities to the backward classes (which can be in proportion to their merit?) at primary and secondary school level and NOT reservations in colleges and universities. Have reservations in schools, why only in colleges and universities? What colleges/IITs/management institutes do is help you develop on what you have acquired so far.

Till now I talked about reservations in general. Now, talking about some specific type/kind of reservation- the one in St. Stephen’s College. I am not in favor of the reservation based on Christian quotas. Those who make through these seats (most of them) are not educationally disadvantageous and hence I see no reason for the same. It is extremely difficult for general category students to get through. First, the cut-off is very high as against 15% less for those through quotas and then you need to be impressive in the interview. While it becomes extremely difficult for a person with 98% to be selected through general category, for a Christian with even below 95% it becomes relatively much easier. All this, in a future date, might break the virtuous circle of academic excellence for which St. Stephen’s is known for. I agree with the reservations for the visually challenged and handicapped people. I also agree with the sports quota for there is a cost in specializing in something and that should be considered. Ok, I am not against reservation for Christians, but look at the number of the seats reserved!

All I would say is reservation is a shortcut to achieve something that can easily be achieved if we focus on ‘small’ things which can lead to a big change, instead of hasty decisions to make a big change which will ultimately lead us nowhere!