Reservation in Indian law provides for a quota system whereby a percentage of posts are reserved in

employment in Government and in the public sector units, and in all public and private educational
institutions, except in the religious/ linguistic minority educational institutions,in order to mitigate
backwardness of the socially and educationally backward communities and the Scheduled Castes and
Tribes who do not have adequate representation in these services and institutions. The reservation
policy is also extended to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for representation in the
Parliament of India. The central government of India reserves 27% of higher education [1], and individual
states may legislate further reservations. Reservation cannot be exceeded 50%, as per the rulings given
by the supreme court[2], but certain Indian states like Rajasthan have proposed a 68 % reservation which
includes a 14% reservation for forward castes. [3] A number of cases challenging the validity of such
reservations provided by the states pending before the apex court.

Reservations are intended to increase the social diversity in campuses and workplaces by lowering the
entry criteria for certain identifiable groups that are grossly under-represented in proportion to their
numbers in the general population. Caste is the most used criteria to identify under-represented groups.
However there are other identifiable criteria for under-representation—gender (women are under
represented), state of domicile (North Eastern States, as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are under-
represented), rural people, etc. -- as revealed by the Government of India sponsored National Family
Health and National Sample surveys.

The underlying theory is that the under-representation of the identifiable groups is a legacy of the Indian
caste system. After India gained independence, the Constitution of India listed some erstwhile groups as
Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). The framers of the Constitution believed that, due to
the caste system, SCs and the STs were historically oppressed and denied respect and equal opportunity
in Indian society and were thus under-represented in nation-building activities. The Constitution laid
down 15% and 7.5% of vacancies to government aided educational institutes and for jobs in the
government/public sector, as reserved quota for the SC and ST candidates respectively for a period of
five years, after which the situation was to be reviewed. This period was routinely extended by the
succeeding governments.

Later, reservations were introduced for other sections as well. The Supreme Court ruling that
reservations cannot exceed 50% (which it judged would violate equal access guaranteed by the
Constitution) has put a cap on reservations. However, there are state laws that exceed this 50% limit
and these are under litigation in the Supreme Court. For example, the caste-based reservation fraction
stands at 69% and is applicable to about 87% of the population in the state of Tamil Nadu

THE FACULTY SHORTAGE

The number of faculty hasn’t increased all that much with the subsequent rise in
the number of students over the years, and this is because there’s a huge shortage
of quality teachers. Latest survey says that the nation’s seven IITs need about 900
additional faculty members before the next academic session to counteract the
shortfall. This survey was done when there was no provision for the OBC quotas.
The government has said that the total number of seats belonging to general
category wouldn’t come down. But can government tell us from where will they get
the teachers? In a scenario where leading tech colleges across America and Britain
offer 1:6 faculty student ratio, most IITs just manage to scrape up a 1:12 ratio
while struggling to stem attrition and quality faculty. In some of IITs, it is hard to
maintain a ratio of 1:14. The same is the story of the medical institutes. We
recently saw the strike by medicos in Mumbai following the reduction in post
graduate seats for need of the teachers. The seats, which were 1900 in 2001 have
been reduced to 450 in the year 2008. If we are unable to maintain the current
institutes, then what are the chances of maintaining it after the increase in 54 per
cent seats? All this would definitely have the impact on the quality of education.

The infrastructure:
Government announced recently that it’s going to open 10 more IITs and IIMs and
the apparent reason is that it wants to promote higher technical education in the
country, but won’t opening more IITs and IIMs dilute the brand of these
institutions? Already these institutes are facing crunch of faculty members and it is
yet to be seen how the government will manage to attract more faculty members
for newer institutes. Secondly, do we have requisite infrastructure? The
government has no solutions to the problems related to shortage of laboratories,
playgrounds, staff, hostels and classrooms in existing institutes. Will they be able to
sustain newer institutes or will it turn out as just another plan on paper? Do you
remember, the government in 2003 planned to open six all India institute of
medical sciences (AIIMS) in the country. The plan has yet not took off. What a pity!

The merit compromise:

The identity of any organisation is its quality. Output depends on input of quality.
Anything we do should not disturb the quality of input. Why today IIT or IIM or IISC
stands so high in quality index, this is because the input quality is extraordinary.
The whole idea of reservation, and that too in premier institutes such as IITs and
IIMs and a medical institute such as AIIMS would reflect on the quality of graduates
that these institutes would deliver. The deserving ones feel left out in the race
despite spending a fortune and making all efforts to cope up with the pressure of
admissions. We should focus on finding a solution to the issue ’without diluting
excellence’. The students of these institutes have made their country proud and
created a brand in the global market. This is because they were few of the best
brains in the country and won the fierce competition where there are 10,000 people
for one seat. If now we will have 50 per cent seats where the merit is not the sole
criteria, then it is bound to impact the ’merit’ of these institutes. If OBC candidates
manage to get admissions into IITs and IIMs, there is no doubt that the OBC
candidates will get the skills required to get job offers that make media analysts
drool. In the bargain, if some upper caste candidate is deprived of a seat; well, that
is social justice in action!

Losing investors:
Many people argue that reserving seats at India’s few merit-based and uncorrupted
institutes of higher learning will dilute standards, bring down student morale, and
jump-start a brain drain that had just started to reverse. At a time when India is
looking towards its youth population to take India to new height it is of umpteen
importance that we provide everyone with the best education possible. Till date, the
government has failed miserably to maintain the standards of elite institutes and is
definitely looking for private players to invest in the education sector. Many
economists are worried about the effect of reservations on India’s competitiveness.
Surjit Bhalla, an economist who often advises New Delhi, said in an interview that
reservations would become a problem for investors. If there isn’t enough qualified
talent available in India, they “will not hesitate to go to China, Vietnam, or even to
Bangladesh and Pakistan.”

IITs, AIIMS and IIMs are temples of education that command international respect.
Their students represent the face of modern India. Let us not ’mandalise’ education
and vandalise young lives. Perhaps minister Arjun Singh would do well to recall the
words: “Give a man food and he will be grateful yet poor. Give a man the means to
earn his food and he will be grateful and financially independent.” He just needs to
substitute food with education. We need to focus on the better primary education
first. As I would like to sum it up. There are two cliffs – one is student and other is
a quality higher education. In order to bridge these two cliffs, we need quality
primary education. But the government, instead of strengthening the bridge, is
focusing on one cliff only. If that is the cast, then the bridge is weak and a student
will fall in the pit joining the two cliffs