India ready for quota? Question merits debate

OPINION WITHOUT RESERVATIONS: SC upholds OBC quota but keeps creamy layer off it. Is it a right decision?

              

Other stories in the section:

20 kids trapped inside school for over a week

The school principal fears the food shortage could trigger a food war.

• UN body calls for probe into Kashmir killings

• MNS can't hold people to ransom, court warns Raj

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Bhiwani to Beijing: Lessons from a journey

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• SC reserves order on OBC quota
• Chat Now: Is this the end of merit?
• SC to pronounce judgement on OBC quota today

Keywords: The Quota Question, Reservation

Dr Bansal stuck to his ground nonetheless saying that the idea of reservations took root from votebank politics and that the Government was playing the British game of divide and rule. "The more the Government divides this country, the better chances they have of staying in power. Rather than providing for primary and secondary education, the Government is caching in on votebank politics," he said.

Striking a middle ground?

The court is virtually asking the two sides to come together with this decision now. They have taken the best of both the arguements. It is now the campus which is polarised.

Rohit said that the point is not about pro and anti-reservationists coming at a middle ground now. He said that the point was that organisations like the Youth For Equality - which he claimed were entirely a casteist organisations - had been rebuffed by the Supreme Court.

These points apart, the question practically now was whether IIMs and IITs have the infrastructure to accomodate quota students. In many campuses, there are two students who share a 100 sq ft room and this might just add to the burden on the campuses.

Professor Chandra said that about a year ago with the Moily Committee, they had clearly said that they would be happy to accomodate quota students in a three year phase using our existing resources.

"We had said that we would accomodate 7 pc students the first year, 17 pc in the second year and the rest in the third year," he said.

Till then though, quality could be badly effected because the teacher student ratio could go up to one teacher for 15 students when it should ideally be one teacher for nine students.

"The first year would be simple because we just have to accomodate 19 students. However, in the long term, the increase is about 54 per cent over the existing numbers and then we would need to add factulty and all other resources in order to maintain the same level of quality," he said.

He added that the issue was more that the students - quota and general category - should graduate almost equal to each other and that all students should be equally good when they graduate from the institute.

"At this juncture, we are not ready to ensure this, though in the long run, I am sure we will be ready," he stated.

Campus politics

There is a worry on the campus that candidates who come in through the quota will have an inferiority complex and may be treated as lesser cousins.

Rohit did not agree saying that there was already stratification in India and segregation on campuses was something that was already happening.

However, Dr Bansal disagreed saying that the Government had simply widened the rift between upper and lower castes on campuses. Dr Bansal refused to acknowledge the fact that there was already a rift between classes on campuses like AIIMS.

"See, our argument was thatt meritorious students from backward classes should be brought at par with the general category students. Also, students who do not have access to infrastructure and facilities like books, schools and colleges should also be brought at a level where they can study and be as good as anyone else," he stated.

Supply Vs demand

There is a huge demand and there is less supply so wouldn't creating more IITs and IIMs across the country solve the problem a bit?

Prof Chandra agreed with this adding that many of these problems would become secondary if education in India was privatised and people would automatically get more opportunities in the country.

"There is also a very strong case for increasing the capacity in Government institutions too. We want to expand and we want to bring in more students. We need more faculty and for this the culprit is compensation from the Government," he said.

Both Rohit and Dr Bansal agreed that the crux of the problem was opportunity. India needed to provide many more IITs and IIMs to its students and create opportunities for people in the process.

Final results of the SMS/Web poll:

Is the Supreme Court decision on OBC quota the right step?

Yes: 21 per cent

No: 79 per cent

CNN-IBN Editorial: The 27 per cent OBC education quota is an important legal reminder from the Supreme Court that the Indian state stands for equality of opportunity. The judgement, as a legal statement is undoubtedly a good one, but it is no substitute for executive action. Real equality of all India's young citizens will only be possible if the primary school system is drastically improved so that the overwhelming majority of India's children do not drop out of school. For the moment, the government's attempt to carve up centres of excellence according to caste appears lopsided given the fact that only less than ten percent of our children will ever be educated enough to apply to these centres of excellence anyway.