"Quota" Raj in India

In India, every other community wants to be included in the specified list to get the innumerable benefits of Reservation in education and employment. Reservation or Quota system in education was started initially to benefit the so-called deprived/suppressed/disadvantaged communities so as to improve their quality of life. But, soon the governments at the centre realized that the RESERVATION based on the caste system is the buzz word for getting elected to the legislature or parliament. So, the reservation policy started in early fifties continued for the past few decades. Today, may be more than 50% of the voting population belongs to this reserved categories.

The supreme court of India, on 10/04/08 has upheld the 27% additional quota for “other backward classes”, OBCs) in educational institutions. The court also asked to exclude children from “creamy layer” (whose family’s annual income exceeding 2.5 Lakh rupees as well as children of big farmers) in the OBC quota. This shows that the he apex court is against a few privileged among the backwards hogging all the quota benefits. The court also stipulated that the quotas will not apply to post-graduate courses, and the continuation of the reservation policy should be reviewed every five years.

The court’s verdict has created confusion in the premier educational institutions like IITs, IIMs and AIIMS. Admission processes are under hold in some institutions.

Sixty years after independence, it is time that one should look beyond caste. The caste system was based on a hierarchy of occupations and used to dictate whether a person belonged to a socially and educationally advanced class or not. The situation is no more remains the same. Old social hierarchies based on occupations are becoming irrelevant. Occupations are changing. Public policy should recognize these social changes.

Sometime in the future, the reservation policy, based purely on caste and creed should be scraped. Let there be adequate number of good quality colleges and institutions so that children and parents don’t have to go after these quota seats. However, economically backward class will continue to remain in view of the exorbitant fees charged by these quality institutions. I am sure that nobody wants to become poor to get the quota benefits.