We don't want no reservation......

Meritocracy : a system of government/society based on rule by ability (merit) rather than by wealth, race or other determinants of social position.
India in future : a place where each position/oppurtunity is presented based on caste and one's family.

You may think that's too dire and i am sounding like one of those doomsdayers but unfortunatley it's not far from the truth. On saturday, for the first time i attented an organised, anti-establishment protest. It was regarding reservations the government plan to bring in centres for higher education. The main issues i have with the whole thing :-

1. Denial of fair and equal oppurtunities to deserving candidates n making it hell of a lot tougher for them to get into the institutes of thier choice.
2. Creating a society based on incompetence. For example, just imagine 50% of the teachers in government schools will from quota seats. Ok, all of them will not be bad teachers but most of them will not be upto the mark. Now, governnment schools is where most of the children coming from the lower n less priveleged sections of the society go to. We should be providing these kids with gud teachers n nice schools....but !!
3. The ridiculous double standards and myopic vision of our politicians - the infamous Mandal Commission report gave a two pronged approach to tackle the problem of social inequality. One ofcourse was the quota's but it also said that the reservations without changes in our education system at grassroot level is meaningless n substaintial effort should go in that direction. In grab of catching votes the second n more important action has conveniently been forgotten.

Right from the time the Constitution was written any sort of affirmative action was for removing the social inequalities present at the time of independence and not economic upliftment of backward classes. There are a great many anti-poverty schemes for that. Weather they work or not is an entirely different issue. Now, people of my generation i think give a lot less importance to caste boundaries then say thier parents. one would think that deep rooted predjuices would go subsequently in time. But by literally dividing every classroom into two parts the government is bringing that issue to the forefront for this genration and many future ones too.

Some suggestions:-
- Even if we have reservations in some form, give a time frame to them, infact initially these quota's were meant to be reviewed every 10 years but no politician has the guts to remove them.
- The benfits of reservation should be available for only one generation in a family - otherwise it's pretty much the same bunch who keep enjoying the benefits and the people for whom it's actually meant for aren't even educated about it.
- Provide better primary education and health facilities to the less privileged classes and think of a mechanism so that the benefits actually reach the
people who need it.

The protest march itself was gud, remained peaceful inspite more than 3000 people turning up. Lots off people from my company went as part of a corporate initiative which saw some 500 people from different organisations show up. What was gud to see was IT professionals, CA's, eminent doctors, ofcourse medical students and people from a wide cross-section of society came. Most of these people are probably not directly affected but very much concerned. I don't know if it's the RDB effect or what but such protests are taking place in Bhopal, Banglore, Orissa...pretty much all over the country. It's about time we educated folks stood up and be counted to make the little diference in making this country a better place.

Visit www.youth4equality.org to support the movement