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Lets think about Reservations

I am not here to present a new concept or what I think. Actually, I haven't given it a thought ever. So I am here to battle out the issue in my mind. The issue is not other than 'reservations'. Please don't scold me if I write childishly, please don't say that I am a fool or something, and please don't tell me that I am contradicting my words if I say something else later. This post is completely based on the thoughts that come along 'during' the time I am typing here.

The Backward Classes (BC) have been long exploited by the upper classes. Ranta sir gives a detailed time-line about the history of reservations in India. Reservations these days have become like a pain in the lives of people of the 'general category'. Everywhere, the number of seats for the GC is slashed down by the 'reserved seats'.

When I did my AIEEE counselling, many of the NITs (National Institute of Technology) had something like 1-2 seats for 'Madhya Pradesh students'. Out of the 1-2 seats, 1 was reserved. As a result, some of the colleges didn't even have a seat for me (a GC MP student). But another issue is, does it completely hamper my career? I did get admission in another college where there were enough seats (actually 0% reservation to be precise).

What 'good' was obtained out of reserving seats for BC students? Many of the parents who were hoping that their son/daughter will get through AIEEE but couldn't make it into the high ranks could actually go in and become an engineer. Maybe in some colleges, there is a relaxed passing criterion for BC students. Finally, some company comes and recruits the students. Obviously the company will take the 'high ranking meritorious students'. As a result, the so-called 'BC software engineer' with a degree too remains unemployed. He is a little less capable, maybe. He might get a job, but that too in a smaller place where his skills are enough to do the job.

Now, in the new scenario, 49.5 % of the students will be from the BC. At this point, we should not stereotype BC = less capable. Even a BC student can be a genius and a general student can be a duffer. But the cause of the stereotyping is the fact that the GC student has no choice but to face the competition among millions of others while the BC student 'has a easier way out too'. We are told the story of a cocoon in childhood or somewhere. If the butterfly doesn't struggle and break the cocoon to come out, and someone else just helps her open it up, her muscles don't get enough strength and it doesn't achieve the capability to fly. In a similar way, this 'reservation system' is crippling the BC students by giving them perks.

The government, as you all know, has also chosen to ask the industries to create some criterion of reservation for BC graduates for recruitment in the same. As a result, 49.5% of the employees of all companies will be from BC. Though those who face the actual competition will be as good as the GC people, the 'crippled' ones will help create chaos in the companies too. Bad economy, bad productivity, higher prices and so on will be some of the consequences as I see them.

Some news channel was showing us the condition of the BC people in India (Mumbai to be precise). It says that these people continue to do the downtrodden jobs just for the sake of getting a quarter to live in. As a result, some people left other good jobs and became sweepers in the municipality. Their job hasn't changed, just that now it has become a government job from being a forced occupation. How will reservation help those kind of BC people? They will not even know what IIT or IIM is. The reservation quota will keep depriving GC students for the sake of those BC people who aren't even aware of their rights.

As discussed in the above paragraphs, I feel that a BC student needs to be given encouragement and help at the lower levels of education, when the foundations of his academic career are being grounded. After that, he should be left into the open competition, to struggle and fail or succeed, but finally at the end of the day live like a self-made eligible capable Indian citizen. So, at the end of all the thought process, I think I support 'anti-reservation' at the level of 'higher studies and employment' but I strongly support reservations, benefits and perks to all BC people at the foundation levels of education. And I also advocate a re-evaluation of the list of BC people of India. Rather than keeping it caste-wise, make it income-wise.

Hope you didn't get bored. I might change my views tomorrow, don't expect anything from me. Ciao.