I am back again!
I am finding myself at a very confusing position in life at the moment……..the burning topic of discussion these days in India is the reservation issue: yes! Its come to haunt us again after almost 15 years……….
Initially when Mandal 1 happened I reacted against the whole thing – I didn’t have all my facts right and probably I was too naïve then and was carried away with what near and dear ones told me……… as I started working in the development sector I began to understand the merits and demerits of reservation……… I realized that not everyone has had the opportunity to enter the corridors of a school……..i realized that several of them had been ostracized for no fault of theirs and I realized very painfully that I belonged a class that was once considered an oppressor. I felt history had to be undone and people from the backward classes needed to be given a platform or an opportunity to get into school. I developed this opinion despite knowing that I had lost several of my cousins to foreign universities…….never to return again to their motherland…….
Over years, I also saw how this reservation was misused and politically motivated…..have seen people converting to some backward class or the other to take advantage of the benefits……..have seen several people who are truly backward (in every sense – socially, economically, culturally – with no access to anything in life) who have been denied the benefits of these reservations. As most Indians, I guess I came to terms with the fact that as in most other things……there are loopholes in this policy as well….
Now, its mandal 2 time. Now it’s the turn of higher education institutions who have to reserve seats for the backward classes. If mandal 1 was launched with the purpose of giving everyone a platform at the elementary level then does this mean that we have failed miserably at that and so mandal 2 is also being introduced? I am of the firm belief that higher education has to be purely on merit and nothing else…….. The IITs and the IIMs certainly belong to only merit category and the larger public interest dictates that they take in the very best and train them to standards that are second to none internationally.
(p.s - thanks Gugu for pushing me to get back!!)
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10 comments:
Hhhm not again.. So u have deprived me to post about the topic that would have featured in my Blog the next.. Never mind..
Yes I agree, Mandal 1 was the time when I intensely felt that may be this is not going to serve the purpose and here we are with Mandal 2 and I feel the pretty same, but with more intensity. (Still remember had participated in the small protest outside my school, may be that was the only protest in which I participated)
Having worked with people who propogate and favour reservation has not made me rethink on the same!! For we all know it is not going to help anyone.. Miserable that most of my friends who had got in to RECs through reservation were not able to even clear through the first year...and they had to leave depriving some more eligible students who would have got in.It clearly is not empowerment but just creating political advantage..
I think politicising it is not going to help.. and with the global competition that we are faced today, it is not going to help anyone. No doubts it is coming again from one of the parties who favours reservation/dynasty rule still today!And we all saw it has worked in India..
Hhhm not again.. So u have deprived me to post about the topic that would have featured in my Blog the next.. Never mind..
Yes I agree, Mandal 1 was the time when I intensely felt that may be this is not going to serve the purpose and here we are with Mandal 2 and I feel the pretty same, but with more intensity. (Still remember had participated in the small protest outside my school, may be that was the only protest in which I participated)
Having worked with people who propogate and favour reservation has not made me rethink on the same!! For we all know it is not going to help anyone.. Miserable that most of my friends who had got in to RECs through reservation were not able to even clear through the first year...and they had to leave depriving some more eligible students who would have got in.It clearly is not empowerment but just creating political advantage..
I think politicising it is not going to help.. and with the global competition that we are faced today, it is not going to help anyone. No doubts it is coming again from one of the parties who favours reservation/dynasty rule still today!And we all saw it has worked in India..
Hhhm not again.. So u have deprived me to post about the topic that would have featured in my Blog the next.. Never mind..
Yes I agree, Mandal 1 was the time when I intensely felt that may be this is not going to serve the purpose and here we are with Mandal 2 and I feel the pretty same, but with more intensity. (Still remember had participated in the small protest outside my school, may be that was the only protest in which I participated)
Having worked with people who propogate and favour reservation has not made me rethink on the same!! For we all know it is not going to help anyone.. Miserable that most of my friends who had got in to RECs through reservation were not able to even clear through the first year...and they had to leave depriving some more eligible students who would have got in.It clearly is not empowerment but just creating political advantage..
I think politicising it is not going to help.. and with the global competition that we are faced today, it is not going to help anyone. No doubts it is coming again from one of the parties who favours reservation/dynasty rule still today!And we all saw it has worked in India..
Hhhm not again.. So u have deprived me to post about the topic that would have featured in my Blog the next.. Never mind..
Yes I agree, Mandal 1 was the time when I intensely felt that may be this is not going to serve the purpose and here we are with Mandal 2 and I feel the pretty same, but with more intensity. (Still remember had participated in the small protest outside my school, may be that was the only protest in which I participated)
Having worked with people who propogate and favour reservation has not made me rethink on the same!! For we all know it is not going to help anyone.. Miserable that most of my friends who had got in to RECs through reservation were not able to even clear through the first year...and they had to leave depriving some more eligible students who would have got in.It clearly is not empowerment but just creating political advantage..
I think politicising it is not going to help.. and with the global competition that we are faced today, it is not going to help anyone. No doubts it is coming again from one of the parties who favours reservation/dynasty rule still today!And we all saw it has worked in India..
Hhhm not again.. So u have deprived me to post about the topic that would have featured in my Blog the next.. Never mind..
Yes I agree, Mandal 1 was the time when I intensely felt that may be this is not going to serve the purpose and here we are with Mandal 2 and I feel the pretty same, but with more intensity. (Still remember had participated in the small protest outside my school, may be that was the only protest in which I participated)
Having worked with people who propogate and favour reservation has not made me rethink on the same!! For we all know it is not going to help anyone.. Miserable that most of my friends who had got in to RECs through reservation were not able to even clear through the first year...and they had to leave depriving some more eligible students who would have got in.It clearly is not empowerment but just creating political advantage..
I think politicising it is not going to help.. and with the global competition that we are faced today, it is not going to help anyone. No doubts it is coming again from one of the parties who favours reservation/dynasty rule still today!And we all saw it has worked in India..
Hhhm not again.. So u have deprived me to post about the topic that would have featured in my Blog the next.. Never mind..
Yes I agree, Mandal 1 was the time when I intensely felt that may be this is not going to serve the purpose and here we are with Mandal 2 and I feel the pretty same, but with more intensity. (Still remember had participated in the small protest outside my school, may be that was the only protest in which I participated)
Having worked with people who propogate and favour reservation has not made me rethink on the same!! For we all know it is not going to help anyone.. Miserable that most of my friends who had got in to RECs through reservation were not able to even clear through the first year...and they had to leave depriving some more eligible students who would have got in.It clearly is not empowerment but just creating political advantage..
I think politicising it is not going to help.. and with the global competition that we are faced today, it is not going to help anyone. No doubts it is coming again from one of the parties who favours reservation/dynasty rule still today!And we all saw it has worked in India..
wow! u felt so strongly about this and u sent in ur comments 6 times!!!!
i am looking for various aspects of this debate so that we can examine different views as well this time.
to me the solution is simple atleast conceptually (implementation is a whole different beast):
Financial aid based on financial need. It solves everything that reservations aim but fail to solve, and it is harder to make divisive speeches for political advantage within an economic framework.
am sure this is not a novel idea. but just for the record.
do u think financial problems is the only reason that keeps people from the backward communities from getting a decent education??
i dont think so...what about issues of social equity, access, ostracism......these are ground realities......how do u tackle these?
these are not issues at institutions like the IITs and IIMs. issues of social inequity manifest at the primary education level. at the primary education level, free seats can be reserved. we aren't against reservations completely. even now, less than half of the reserved seats are ever filled at the IITs and IIMs. why not concentrate on the primary education centre?
the more rich kids you have in a school, the more you get paid, so the more free seats you can afford. The real problem is in the villages and remote areas, where schools are substandard, and their local caretakers are casteists. the task should be to enforce such a slabbed fee structure and reservation of free seats.
At the PRIMARY education level, there is no airtight basis to judge a child, and so THERE reservations can make sense. but where merit is a measure of capability to cope with a course, it is not a solution.
my 2 paise again
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