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 government’s 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 country’s 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.
