When I was about to take admission in engineering, I was frustrated by seeing the guys with a rank as bad as mine (if not worse) getting admission in a much better college than the college where I got the admission. The only reason for above mentioned difference was that they belonged to “reserved” category.
I have no objection to reservations being provided to the really underprivileged section. But when lakhs of middle class or affluent people who (un)fortunately fall in the reserved categories take the unscrupulous advantage of reservations, then it does become a cause of exasperation. The sad part is that neither govt. nor these people themselves (on moral grounds) do anything to control this rampant abuse of merit. How can a govt. sit back and see affluent people getting reservations and general category destitute being deprived of opportunity?
The system of reservation was adopted at the time of independence to attain equality in the society. The way politicians manipulated this law to divide and rule is a matter to be worried about. Indian society has moved forward towards equality but on the contrary, reservations have increased by manifolds in last 60 years! Now reservation is nothing but a way to strengthen vote banks.
Now, reservations stand at 49.5% of the total seats in a public sector company/educational institution. How many of these 49.5% do we find from really underprivileged section? Most of our reserved category peers are not “backward” at all. They themselves find the word “backward” to be an abuse but they enjoy reservations! So, the fruits of reservations don’t reach the underprivileged.
The attitude of political parties to attract voters is in fact dividing the nation into different factions. Congress party is trying to entice the Muslim voters by promising them reservations. This is simply unacceptable! One’s caste can’t be changed but religion can be. Say a general category Hindu is not getting a job or admission in an institute. So, he will simply convert his religion to Islam and he’ll fall into reserved category!
Political parties have to think in national interest and must pursue towards providing reservation to really backward people of the country irrespective of their castes or religions. Some would say that it is an unrealistic solution as how one would find who is backward in a country as big as ours. But there can be a way out possible by the use of technology as in Adhaar cards. There is a need of serious effort on the part of govt. to try to uplift the people of these classes not by giving them reservation but by giving them financial assistance. Last, but not the least, financially stable people from these categories should voluntarily give up the advantages of reservations because they are not “backward” at all.
PS: I had originally written this article on my blog: http://innocentsid.blogspot.in/2012/03/curious-case-of-reservations.html
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