Reservation Issue

On August 30, 2006, a law was proposed by Human Resources Development minister Arjun Singh to require central institutions to reserve 27 per cent higher education seats for the socially and educationally backward within three years while adding seats to protect the prospects of unreserved candidates. The bill was based on the recommendations of the Mandal Commission (2005).

Other Reservations- As if Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBC’s were not enough, we had some more categories such as the NRI quota, management quota, extra-curricular activities quota, sports quota, then reservations for disabled army personnel and their kins/widows/divorced/physically challenged, we even have reservation for ex-students of an institution from previous years who get seat in higher courses despite scoring lower than the minimum required marks. So who is left?
Views in “favour” of Reservation- Generally, SC, ST, OBC or other reserved categories people are financially weak. Major portion of this population lives in villages, for example, major part of SC population lives in backward villages of U.P, Punjab, M.P, Bihar, Orissa, etc. and major part of ST population lives in states like Mizoram, Assam, Tripura, M.P etc. Some of these backward villages do not even have proper drinking facilities; electricity, school (education), hospitals, roads etc are just “dreams” for them. Their per capita income is very low, cyclical employment is high, dependence on agriculture and allied activities is high, and finally, productivity is very less because of lack of initiatives taken by state government. They             do need some help, yet it is also true that reservation is not the panacea but up to a certain extent is very useful. Those needy people who get this golden opportunity and used it for their betterment are now very successful and they are serving our mother country with the core of their heart. If we must talk about “India Shining” in real terms, then we must consider...