IDEA OF MERIT

Submitted by:

ARYAN ASTHANA

Batch 2021-26, BBA LLB.

PRN: 21010224143

Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA

Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune

In
November 2021

Under the Guidance of

Ms Kritika Ramya

Assistant Professor

Symbiosis Law School NOIDA

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CERTIFICATE
The project entitled “Idea of Merit” submitted to the Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA for
Foundation of Ethics as part of Internal Continuous Evaluation is based on my original
work carried out under the guidance of Ms. Kritika Ramya. The material borrowed from
other sources and incorporated in the research has been duly acknowledged.

I understand that I myself could be held responsible and accountable for plagiarism, if
any, detected later on.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude towards Ms. Kritika Ramya for
helping me and being my guiding light for this project. They provided me with valuable
insight which aided me in understanding all the basics of this project, and also helped me
with any doubts I had regarding the project.

I would also like to thank the library department and academic support of Symbiosis Law
School, Noida for providing me with different research sources and materials to help make
my project with the best of originality.

I would also like to thank Symbiosis Law School, Noida for providing me with this project
so that I could understand the basic information regarding Merit easily and satisfactorily
and with full detail.

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 INDEX

Sl. No. Particulars Pg. No.

1 Certificate 2
2 Acknowledgement 3
3 Introduction 5
4 Research Question 6
5 Greater economic inequality leading to greater 8
gap in the idea of merit
6 Conclusion 10

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INTRODUCTION

When we think about Merit it is often associated with the being an achievement or quality
of a person in something. The term ‘Merit’ is often used in Academic sphere to define a
learner’s ability to be competent enough to do something. It is believed that Merit is
through a person’s hard work and should be credited to that individual. This might not be
actually totally true as other things can have a great deal of influence on the Merit of
person.

Earlier, education was accessible only to the rich who had acquired the money over
generations or belonged to a higher class which made education for the other part of the
society inaccessible. The idea of merit that India followed was given to us by the British
which they used while we were colonised to use those selected few who passed the third
division as educated labourers.

A large section of society was deprived of the access due to both their Social Status and lack
of money. The idea of merit that we follow was biased towards the people who earlier
didn’t had the access to education and now had to compete with the people who have a
generational access to it. It creates an invisible gap that can be seen if a person is
considerate enough to acknowledge his/her privilege or the bias that is present. 1

This gap has been termed as an “Merit Gap2” which means the gap between the ones
perceived with High levels of merit to the ones perceived with Low levels of merit. Nicholas
Heiserman and Brent Simpson have proposed an idea that the economic inequality can
have a huge impact on the idea of this perceived Merit gap. This means that societies with
greater economic inequality can see a bigger gap in merit as compared to societies with
lower economic inequality. This indicates that the gap between the perceived Merit of the
rich and poor would be more in societies with economic inequality than ones with lower
economic inequality.

Through this paper, we will try to know more about whether greater or lower economic
inequality can lead to more gap in the perceived idea of Merit and how the idea of merit in
India is biased towards a section of society.

1
Jain, R. B. (1972). OPERATION OF THE MERIT SYSTEM IN INDIA. The Indian Journal of Political Science, 33(2), 186–
205. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41854500
2
Heiserman, N., & Simpson, B. (2017). Higher Inequality Increases the Gap in the Perceived Merit of the Rich and Poor.
Social Psychology Quarterly, 80(3), 243–253. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26429030
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RESEARCH QUESTION

 Can greater economic inequality lead to more gap in the perceived idea of merit?

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GREATER ECONOMIC INEQUALITY LEADING TO GREATER GAP
IN THE IDEA OF MERIT

The upper section of the society has been seen to give more importance to education and
spends more on it than the lower section of society. Another facet to it is that the upper
section of the society or rich can afford the best and expensive education whereas the
people belonging to lower sections of the society find it quite difficult to afford that.

In today’s world, it can be said without a doubt that good education in reputed colleges and
universities that provide state of the art modern facilities is quite expensive. Even if we
consider the multiple scholarships that make a student pay no tuition fees, the number of
these scholarships are very few as compared to the numbers that apply for it 3. If in order to
get the best and most modern education so that the person is ready to make the best of the
opportunities that come in this modern world one has to pay an exorbitant amount of
money that he/she cannot afford even though they might be competent for it, it will in
most occasions then go the person that can afford it.

Even for being competent enough to join these institutions, someone belonging to a lower
economic background would have to more hardships than a person belonging to higher
economic background.

Illustration - In order to get into the top universities like the Ivy League Colleges, one has
to submit an application and multiple other papers which help in making the merit of each
individual candidate. It is not only restricted to academics as it involves a lot other
parameters and extra-curricular a person is evaluated on. Imagine a person who has
studied in a very prestigious school of the country because his/her parents can afford it
very easily and has participated in many different events and tournaments due to the
opportunities being available easily and has succeeded in many of those due to proper
guidance being provided there. On the other hand, a student studying in a local public
school near his house because that is the best his/her parents can afford. He has not
participated in much of the events because not many of those opportunities were there and
him/her also not being available to afford the ones that come by him. He/she manages to
good grades but the quality of education is very good. Who would you think will have a
greater chance of getting int0 those colleges? Though even if the person belonging to lower
economic background secures a seat at top colleges, he/she would have to work a lot

3
Klein, C. C., & Perry-Sizemore, E. A. (2017). Do State Funded Merit Scholarships for Higher Education Improve High
School Graduation Rates? Journal of Education Finance, 43(2), 152–168. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45093657
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harder than in the exams than someone who has more no. of participations in multiple
events and tournaments as it makes a more appealing profile.

When the parameters on which merit is being counted is itself not accessible to a large
section of society, (as in the case of illustration, the different experience of different extra-
curricular) it cannot be expected that the numbers which will come after all the evaluation
and which will represent the Merit of the candidate be fair as the challenges faced by one
person would be astronomically different than one faced by the other person.

If this cycle continues then it will only increase the present gap and when the lower section
will not get access to the facilities which might not be very surprising as the situation
mentioned in the illustration will only continue as it is a continuous process and education
is one of the biggest parameters.

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CONCLUSION

Hence, it can be concluded that greater economic inequality can lead to more gap in the
perceived idea of merit as the opportunities that are present to someone with higher
economic background is different than the ones present to ones with lower economic
background.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Jain, R. B. (1972). OPERATION OF THE MERIT SYSTEM IN INDIA. The Indian

Journal of Political Science, 33(2), 186–205. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41854500
2. Heiserman, N., & Simpson, B. (2017). Higher Inequality Increases the Gap in the
Perceived Merit of the Rich and Poor. Social Psychology Quarterly, 80(3), 243–253.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/26429030
3. Klein, C. C., & Perry-Sizemore, E. A. (2017). Do State Funded Merit Scholarships for
Higher Education Improve High School Graduation Rates? Journal of Education
Finance, 43(2), 152–168. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45093657

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