Nobody seems to be raising the basic issue: Why do we still require the crutch of reservations to enable students from the deprived sections to stand on their feet even 60 years after Independence?
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 do 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 entrepreneurs.
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. Do
such gimmicks really pay electoral dividends? How many times did V.P. Singh get
re-elected after reserving 27 per cent berths for OBCs?
S.S. Gill was secretary, Mandal Commission.