Comments on: About reservation

By: viru

viru — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:17:53 +0000

Dilip: “What we need is not reservation but affirmative action.”
Viru: Can you please explain how this “affirmative action” would be?

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Dilip: “Reservation should be implemented at lower levels of education like primary & secondary school”

Viru: Do you mean that 69% reservation in PSBP and similar ‘private’ Schools? Already those who can’t afford such schools go to Government school (FYI I studied in Govt school from 6th to 12th).
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Dilip: “Higher education should purely be on merit basis”

Viru: Poor and discriminated students don’t have money to go for higher education. It is where they need this reservation. If it is purely based on merit basis then 10% of the population which is doing well in the society will get 90% of the seats in all Government and Govt aided colleges where the education is highly subsidized. Then ‘rich will become richer and poor will become poorer’ analogy will happen here also.
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Dilip: “..so much less investment in terms of R & D in most arena’s in India, we compromise on merit.”

Viru: In any country, R&D happens mainly in private sector. The investment is less because there is not enough people who can do R&D here. Even if they are capable, they fly to US and other developed countries to earn high salary.

It is not because of reservation but because of Education System in India the R&D is poor.

You bring me the so called ‘Intelligent and deserving’ students whom you think are ‘R&D materials’ and I can prove that they are not even good in ‘basics’ of the education. I can tell this with confidence because I’m a member of The Physics Society (www.PhysicsSociety.com) and I know very well how we produce such ‘intelligent students’. (Please read this: http://www.physicssociety.com/?page_id=2 )

Like you, many people mix ‘reservation system’ and ‘education system’ in India for the cause of ‘poor quality students’.

By: viru

viru — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:49:20 +0000

Yes. You are absolutely right Sukumar. I totally agree with you.

By: Dilip Muralidaran

Dilip Muralidaran — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:08:58 +0000

Virupa,

Can i have an example of Reservations being ‘withdrawn’ after the said duration of its effects being proved in the society. We all know once reservation is dished out, regardless of the time and effectiveness of it, taking it back is a problem.

Also i have not seen any data on how effective reservation has been in uplifting the ‘economically backward’ section of the society instead of helping the ‘creamy layer’ that abuse the facility. What we need is not reservation but affirmative action. Reservation should be implemented at lower levels of education like primary & secondary school. Higher education should purely be on merit basis.

The current caste based reservation in higher education is a mere excuse to a prehistoric education system we tag on to despite its blaring problems. Its self explanatory why we have so much less investment in terms of R & D in most arena’s in India, we compromise on merit.

No matter how much reservation you give a cobblers son will not get to be a doctor as a norm, it may happen as an exception. This is because the state of public education is so bad this person from the deprived section of the society cannot even complete school.

By: rajagopal sukumar

rajagopal sukumar — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:43:20 +0000

Interesting insight Virupa. One more thing to add to your analogy would be this – for 1000s years of school 2 and school 3 did not exist and all of a sudden they were forced to compete with school 1 which has been in existence for 1000s of years. How does school 2 and 3 compete on an equal footing? This is the essence of reservation system.

By: viru

viru — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:46:14 +0000

I admire this sentence of yours: “But it has helped me indirectly by building a more equitable society.”

I was not getting this ‘apt’ sentence because of my proficiency in English language & ability to express my thought. But I’m improving them through this blog.

By: Priya Raju

Priya Raju — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:28:40 +0000

Virupa – Good post.

I agree with you that reservation is needed to help discriminated people. It encourages people from oppressed communities to strive more & perform better. Case in point – the cut-off marks for ST students for MBBS in 2007 was 90%. While it was 97.75% for OC. There’s no difference in capability – if capability can indeed be measured by the present education system – between the 2 candidates.

I’m from a so-called “Forward Caste”, reservation doesn’t help me directly. But it has helped me indirectly by building a more equitable society.

By: viru

viru — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:00:42 +0000

‘Discrimination for a good cause’ is what I’m encouraging here.

Also, in the present Education System I don’t believe that those who scored 95% and above are ‘deserving’ candidates. We can debate this in person.

We should not mix ‘reservation’ & ‘competency’. ‘Reservation’ is just an entry for ‘discriminated people’ of our country.

By: Dilip Muralidaran

Dilip Muralidaran — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:24:32 +0000

So essentially, we are discriminating the deserving candidates because the undeserving ones may feel “hurt”. I think I’m with your boss who disagrees. If i was from the “under-performing” school i would look towards how to get to the “top-performing” school status by next year. Instead expecting other people not to offend me because I’m incompetent does not justice to the most important person, “me” the person who needs to progress.

Instead if your boss had called the under performing students and told them they competed very well but lacked certain elements of capability that the winners had that would help the ones who lost out catch up and be as competent as the winners. To summarize, your boss fed the hungry ones fish to make them feel good momentarily. Instead if he taught them how to fish they wouldn’t go hungry again.