Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Merit must prevail.. Its pure drivel..



Since everyone has joined the bandwagon of the dichotomous issue concerning reservations in higher institutions i feel piqued and so here is my opinion. Almost all the students are opposing this decision by the UPA government. AIIMS students have infact gone on a fast and making bandh calls. This leaves the lifes of the patients hors de combat.. In these strident and quite stentorian protests many things are being kept under the carpet. Its age of disclaimers. Anything and everything which is remotely perceived to be controversial, be it da vinci code or smoking on screen, needs a disclaimer. So first things first, a disclaimer.

Disclaimer:
The views over here are not mine.. And please dont think of me trying to be eccentric because if ur a regular reader of my blog then u will come to know that i loathed RDB, defended kaavya vishwanathan, i find salman rushdie sexy. I really felt in that way.

So, heres my missive to all my readers(306 when i was writing). Lots of furore is being raised that even the savants and mavens(euphemism for meritorious) may not get through to the prestigious institutes if the reservation is implemented. Any country-including nepal- aspires for social equality. Lets get our facts right. 85% of india consists of OBC's, SC's,ST' s. That leaves us, technically speaking, with 15 % upper castes people. Moreover, merit is not the patrimony of the upper castes people. Lots of backward-lets say deprived- students fail to make the mark in the entrance exams due to their academic background. In a country which thrives on english language lots of these deprived ones have been through only their colloquial language. The upper caste students have access to far better education than the deprived ones. Now, let me clarify that in the last few sentences i have been only talking about the "upper castes" but not the creamy layer of the "backward castes". Those sentences apply to them also.

Why do the protestors miss a cardinal thing ? Reservations are only to get these students through the admission. They have to appear for the exams to get the degree. An AIIMS placard had the slogan that "why should i suffer for goverment's incompetence".
Well dear, it took atleast 90 years of hardcore fight for freedom. And when all the things were set right we were setback by another 30 years. Now, the government has realised the need that social equality is a must. And moreover, the sarva shiksha abhiyan, more and more navodaya vidyalayas will certainly buttress ur primary education facade. As the ground will be set firm the top floors will slowly and steadily be tapered off.

Most of the slogans being raised are that the goverment's ulterior motive in doing so is to strengthen their vote bank.
Really ?? These people are so much immersed in their protest that they have forgot their facts. More than half of the indian population currently is of students. And no government would dare miss that fact and leave itself imperilled in the next elections. So, we need to appreciate this endeavour of the government. Many "meritorious" students say that the deprived students cannot compete. So, heres my anti-thesis on that. Its a saying in brij bhasha

"karat karat abhyaas jadmath hoth sujaan" (Rigorous practice will turn a boob headed person into cerebral one)

The mere motivation at that level will see them through the rigorous studies. Anyways, the usual students who get through the general category are usually the part of the "brain drain" team. Leta take the example of sharath babu. He is an IIM alumnus who passed out this year and mind you he is a "Reservation" candidate. He got a job which would fetch him 8.5 lakhs per annum. Inspite of that, he has ventured into catering business and he is going to provide livelihood for some thousands. Sharath babu was lucky to get government's backing in his fledgling years. But wat about those many "deprived" children who top in the 10th and 12th but fade into oblivion later.
Some say that the reservation must be on the basis of income rather than castes. Oh yeah ?? huh.. Nowadays if a student deserves the seat then the banks give loans without any collateral. Income should certainly not be a criteria and leave those 2539 commmunities lurch in the middle. Some suggest increasing the number of seats. That wont do because increasing the size of the cake does not necessarily mean that all the fingers will get into that cake its just that those 3 fingers will get more cream.

8 Comments:

At 11:47 PM, Blogger Shuv said...

are comments allowed for non-SC/ST/OBC readers?

 
At 7:21 AM, Blogger Sweety Maruth said...

heylo This is sweety frm Vizag :P

thnks for droppin ur comment on my blog...well i too 3 to 5 ppl frm vizag...neways lemme knw ur yahoo id ;-)

 
At 8:17 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

U sure? do banks really provide loans without collateral? I still think reservation shud be based on income level...'coz it plays another role...of removing the caste system...gradually...but foreva!!

 
At 9:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

ur post shows dat u r biased.....try 2 b a gud human b4 anythn els....

 
At 11:59 AM, Blogger Zeph Keyes said...

i kinda agree wid jyotsna.. essentially, that way, even th creamy layer will sort itself out.

 
At 9:53 PM, Blogger :) said...

Nice blog Jagan !

Just some facts really ....

If u find this too long, just skim over to the last part...

I won't comment on ur views right now..

Coming from a medical college, I feel the injustice of reservations acutely.

Becoming a doctor goes like this...
Starting in 11th class (but u should have proper understanding of the basics too) , u really slog (read all the class 11 and 12 books minutely, study almost all the time, forgo most of the enjoyment - movies, parties, novels..- that people ur age deserve...

Finally after 2 years, u write the medical entrance exams - hoping u get somewhere ,... - also write the BDS, engineering, ... - just in case. If u still don't get anything ,... repeat for one year(or more-I know several people who have done 2 yrs and ...) - meaning u keep revising nothing else but the 11th and 12th std books for the sole purpose of getting into a medical college...

Finally when u do get in ... u slog for 5 1/2 years ( hopefully not more )

Atleast at this time (5 1/2 years) all the students have the same teachers, same books, same library, same classroom, same facilities, same everything ...

Then comes the next step - Post Graduation (PG)

Now in the medical field, u r almost worthless without a PG - it's not like engineering or anything... Even after 5 1/2 years, u still have a long way to go. A PG ( 3 years is essential - not just a few extra letters at the end of ur name...

The current reservation policy applies to PG courses too
In a central government institution ,
50% - AIPGE quota ( All India Post Graduate Exam ..)
22.5% - SC/ST
27% - OBC


Total - 99.5 % quota
Meaning 0.5 % Open to all.

The total no of PG seats in an institution approx - 70
Therefore, 0.35 seats per year..

This is given by rotating the seats - once in 3 ( to 2) years, ONE seat is open to the TOPPER in the entrance exam...

But since it is an open seat, even reserved category students can get that ONE seat if they top the exam marks...

But did I mention that in medical field , there r many PG specialities - if u want to get the PG of ur choice (ie if u r THE TOPPER) then u have to wait for several years (it's easy to calculate.

By the cycle of the roster, a seat becomes available in a department once in n years, where n = no of dept X 2.8571 2.8571 is 1/.35

The seat is Open to all - irrespective of caste or creed or religion, SC/ST, OBC, poor , rich, ...

All of whom have studied 5 1/2 (or more) years under the same conditions with no

So ...

Atleast in PG , please no reservations ...

By the way, if a person from, say Andhra, joins a central govt institute for MBBS, - he/she cannot write the PG entrance of Andhra...
Only the institute's and AIPGE are open to him/her...

Something to think about - why mainly medicos were protesting ... coz it hits them like this...

 
At 1:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The income based reservations are being proposed as an alt- y??
So that those who have had drawbacks in studies- during prepeartion, may not be left behind..
Dont u think its justified??

 
At 10:57 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice blog. But i don't agree to what you are trying to say. I am one of the person who was affected by reservation long back, even when the seats reserved were not that high. Even after scorin good marks I didn't get a seat in a nearby college, instead right under my nose a guy who was NT with 47% was given a seat in Science. I suppose you have never been affected by reservations, once when get the taste of this bad pill you will for sure take back your comments.

 

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