Author: S.S. Gill
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: April 13, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/2343.html
The HRD ministry's proposal to raise the reservation
quota of students in the professional institutions and central universities
to 49.5 per cent from 22 per cent has raised quite a clamour. But some important
issues have been lost in the debate. Nobody seems to be raising the basic
issue why we still require the crutch of reservations to enable students from
the deprived sections to stand on their feet even 60 years after Independence.
What has happened to the tall claims of affirmative action aimed at raising
the educational and economic standards of the SCs, STs and OBCs, so that their
children are able to compete on their own merit? Arjun Singh's proposal has
been derisively described as Mandal-II. As the Mandal Commission report is
said to be the source of the 'reservation syndrome', I as the former secretary
of the Commission would like to point out how unfair various governments have
been to the Commission's recommendations.
During its discussions the Commission was
fully aware that reservations were only a palliative, and 27 per cent reservation
in educational institutions and government jobs was only one of several recommendations.
Briefly, the other important recommendations were: the radical alteration
in production relations through progressive land reforms; special educational
facilities to upgrade the cultural environment of the students, with special
emphasis on vocational training; separate coaching facilities for students
aspiring to enter technical and professional institutions; creation of adequate
facilities for improving the skills of village artisans; subsidised loans
for setting up small-scale industries; the setting up of a separate chain
of financial and technical bodies to assist OBC enterpreneurs.
None of these measures were even casually
examined by the government, and then prime minister V.P. Singh adopted the
facile and populist route of issuing a one-para order conferring the boon
of 27 per cent reservation on OBCs. To this day no serious effort has been
made to lay the foundations of structures to enable the deprived classes which
will compete with the non-reserved categories on an equal footing.
While reservations to IITs, IIMs and AIIMS
enabled SC, ST and OBC students to leapfrog their way into a prestigious institution,
no attention was paid to the fact that this goal was reached only after 12
or 15 years of hard, foundational work in schools and colleges. And unless
this foundation was adequately strengthened by building a sound coaching infrastructure
for these students, they will find themselves at sea in professional colleges.
The short-term, myopic approach to social
engineering has posed serious problems to the beneficiaries of reservations.
A report prepared by two former directors of IITs found that 50 per cent of
seats reserved for SC and ST candidates remained vacant as the applicants
failed to secure even the much lower entry marks required. Of those admitted,
25 per cent were forced to quit, as they could not complete a four-year course
even in six years. One IIM director said that they are able to fill only around
10-15 per cent of the reserved seats. And even those who are able to complete
the course are not able to take part in extracurricular activities owing to
the pressure of studies. Most of them came away with bitter memories. And
their travails do not end there. They face their most frustrating hurdle in
the job market.
If the Mandal Commission's recommendations
had been accepted and chain residential institutes opened for OBC students
aspiring to take up professional courses, they would have entered the IITs
and IIMs with much greater confidence and fared better. The need for reservations
would, consequently, have gradually tapered off. But now, even after half
a century of reservations, when the third generation of SC/ST candidates are
entering these professional colleges, their need for a crutch is as acute
as that of their predecessors, and the parents of those predecessors.
And its impact on society at large has been
worse. The line dividing the reserved from the non-reserved categories, instead
of blurring, has deepened, generating mutual hostility. Our politicians refuse
to learn from history. Does such gimmicks really pay electoral dividends?
How many times did V.P. Singh get re-elected after reserving 27 per cent berths
for OBCs?
The writer was secretary, Mandal Commission.
Write to him at satyagil@hotmail.com
