Reservation: Boon or Bane?

May 2006, the first Anti-reservation protests were held in Delhi and other parts of the nation because of the proposed directive of HRD Minister, Mr. Arjun Singh to implement a 27% reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the higher education Institutes. After much protests and rage, the bill was passed in the Supreme, allowing 27% reservation. Now, after 2yrs, we again saw protests and bandhs all over the country staged by Gujjars demanding reservation in educational and other fields. Reservation has been there for the past 20years, when the Rajeev Gandhi Government introduced it, but it has come to the forefront when the current government increased the percentage from 22.5% to 49.5%.

The question now arises that, Is the reservation really helpful? Will it really help in making India a superpower? According to a survey, 8 out of 10 Dalit children drop out of school before class X, which means that the drop-out rate is approximately 80%. Is this situation going to improve?

Till when can we force children to go to schools? Even after reservation, if the parents do not send their kids to school, who is responsible? And even if they do send them, what is the guarantee that they’ll study there?

Now that a common opinion has been formed and reservation has been implemented in all higher institutes, what we now should look into is the way we can bring out something positive from this. I believe that we should remove reservation from the office level and in the private sector. If the government were to dictate the terms and conditions in the private sector, then wont the ‘private’ sector be a misnomer?

60 years of Independence and what we still want is reservation and the caste divide. In the future, we may expect every person from every caste asking for reservation in education. This will not only make us more backward in our thoughts and propositions but will lead us nowhere. Instead of making progress, we would regress. We do not want that to happen. At one point of time, we are talking about the Nuclear Deal and at the same time, we talk of reservations and the cast divide. There may come a time, when the ‘General’ people might have to ask for reservation if the current scenario continues.

Reservation is important to an extent but only for those who cannot afford to pay the fees of an Institution. Reservation is a must for those who are below the poverty line so that they can come to the same level as the others from middle class or the higher class and bring their families above the poverty line. This will not only increase opportunities for these people but it will help in reducing poverty. And there is a further advantage of employing these people that is these people will help in the overall progress of the nation but internally and at an international level to be at par with many developed nations.

The Knowledge Commission has been mentioning time and again about building rural India the breeding ground for the intellectual capital of tomorrow’s India, but the government has been in evidently busy with more politically sensitive issues such as reservation. There are more important matters than caste-based reservation to be looked into for the development of the nation.

Reservation in Education not only leads to divide between the students, but also hampers the growth of an Institution per se. If the students do not live amicably with each other, there are chances of scuffles between them, which would affect their studies and their growth as an individual. After all, the growth of a nation begins with the growth of the individual.

Education should be tackled at the Primary level and not the higher level. There should be free and compulsory education for everybody. Though there is a law which states this, but in India, laws are meant to be broken. The laws should be strictly followed and amended from time to time depending upon the needs of the society. What is the point of reserving seats for OBCs when the Primary drop-out rate is so high?

Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru felt our country did not require reservation because every person was unique. Why, then, are we trying to prove that some people are different from others while some are same and give reservations to one part of the society and not to others?
Reservation is not a necessary evil. It is regressive process and should be removed from the Indian society to sustain the balance.