QUOTA FACTORY

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

QUOTA FACTORY

Every year as a new academic year begins, my belief that the Indian education sytem is a sham is further strenghtened. Our's might be the only country where admissions are secured on the basis of one's caste and not in accordance with the number of marks one has scored. In India the reserved category people have to pay less examination fee, get the green card to score less in qualifying entrance exams, have distinct scholarship schemes and have a QUOTA in schools, colleges, jobs and politics to name a few.

The origins of reservation are deep rooted in India, stating back to the pre-independence era. It was the then king of Kolhapur, Shahu Maharaj who initiated reservation in education for non-brahmins and other castes in 1902 and states like Mysore followed suit. 👇

In 1932, the British government set up communal award which granted separate electorates for Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Anglo-Indians, Europeans and depressed classes (then called the untouchables). Later the same year, the Poona pact between B.R Ambedkar and M.K Gandhi to reserve seats for depressed castes within the Hindu electorate.

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The Viceroy's execuitve council of which B.R Ambedkar was a part, recommended a 8.5% of Scheduled Castes in Civil services.

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After Independence in 1950, the Indian constitution committed reservation for Scheduled Castes and Tribes .

One breath of relief was the Landmark judgement in the case of Indra Sawnhey v. Union Of India. The Supreme Court ruled that reservations cannot exceed 50% of the total number of seats available. However, it also propounded that the 50% cap should be calculated on the vacancies arising that particular year and not on the total strneght of the cadre.
On 7 January 2019, Union Council of Ministers approved a 10% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in the General category.^[5] The cabinet decided that this would be over and above the existing 50% reservation for SC/ST/OBC categories. Therefore if there are 200 seats in a particular institution, each category will get the following number of seats 30 (SC), 15(ST), 54(OBC), 20(EWS). This totals to a 119 seats for the reserved category leaving only 81 seats for students from the open general category.

In Modern India, reservation is the nightmare of every student. They know that no matter how hard the study, no matter how many marks they secure, a student scoring lesser marks than them is going to end up getting admitted and not them. This education system might have produced stalwarts, but is it fair to rob students of their opportunities? Are students who work hard and study diligently not deserving enough to get into a college they always dreamt of?

Yes, I do believe and agree that in a country as diverse and culturally and socially enriched as India, the reserved categories do need representation and empowerement. But is handing out reservations to them eventhough their marks extremely low, empowerement? I believe that empowerement is when you make resources available to them, empowerement is when they don't get things handed out on a silver platter, empowerement is when their work speaks before themselves, empowerement is when the students of India dont't frown when reserved categories are mentioned.