Friday, April 28, 2006

(P)Reservation

Reservation seems to be the word on everyone's lips, be it students, politicians, parents or bureaucrats, anyone and everyone seems to have an opinion about reservation.

To me there should be some amount of reservation, I accept and totally agree if there is reservation made in education because by no means we can compare the quality of education in city to the ones in the sub-urban areas, students from there are far behind in terms of quality education, the key point for anyone not from the quality school infested place and the ones where there is 'a' school for all the places surrounding 50-60 km is to be educated and complete their primary education and not about the quality of it, so it also maps to the kind of teachers over there and the way they impart the education (I am not blaming the students nor the teachers here, they have accepted what is being offered to them and are reasonably satisfied, because there is no way a city kid would opt for a school/college in a village, the vice-versa is always the case).
With this background, when these kids want to do their higher education it always helps it they get some push, either by reserving some seats for them or by bringing down the cut-off marks for getting qualified, this way we are ensuring a level playing field so that all can play and then make their mark.
But I do not see a point why the reservation are mapped to caste's (yes there could be cases where a particular caste is always economically backward), I think the whole reservation system should be designed so that all those people who fall below a particular financial line, should be benefited rather than saying that all those belonging to a particular caste get the reservation, this is totally absurd (this is done purely to keep the vote bank alive).

The reservation should stop at the education level and since they have provided a level playing field it is left to the individual from here whether he succeeds or not, the government should not make or ask for reservation in the jobs, this is absurd, you have provided the best of the education and then instead of allowing them to work hard to get a job, you are again going a step further and providing all on a platter then what is the point in studying, they are indirectly being encouraged not to study well and work hard because anyway there is a section of jobs being reserved for them.
Instead of making reservation, it would be better if the government sets aside a % of its GDP and makes some provision in the budget so that all those people who belong to the particular castes are entitled for 'X' amount of money, this way everyone is happy.

I am a SC (Scheduled Caste) person, all through my life I always felt and knew that my father was sufficiently well placed that he could take of my education, hence at no point in my life have I taken the benefit of being a SC - never availed a scholarship, fee cut, nor got into a college based on my caste, I did my B.E (comp sc), if I had used my caste certificate I could have easily got a MBBS seat, but did not because all through my life I was put in best of the school, college and was reading the same books as others and in spite of this if I didn’t get through then it does not make any sense to fall back on your caste and take the help of it, I have lived by that, today I am working as a Senior Manager in a IT firm and happy with what I have achieved.
I do not know if I had got my first job through reservation, then how my colleagues would have perceived me, even if I would proved my credibility there would always be a comment "he got this job because of reservation" - this tag is not good in professional career and will always become an hindrance in one's life.

For me the whole episode is a sham and this Reservation is nothing but for Preservation of vote bank.

"Government should never become god"

No comments: