07-24-2008, 02:04 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>No takers for OBC quota </b>
Pioneer.com
Anuradha Dutt
Even after third cut-off list, colleges have vacancies
The Congress-led UPA coalition's plan to encash 27 per cent OBC quota in centrally-funded higher educational institutions is bound to fail as colleges in Delhi report that there are few takers for the reserved seats. This pre-election ploy to woo the OBC vote-bank by enforcing reservations in the elitist IIMs, IITs, medical colleges and other institutes, funded by the Centre, seems to have come a cropper with a large number of seats staying empty. Many colleges in Delhi, despite giving the maximum relaxation of 10 per cent in marks, have found the response by the targeted section quite poor. Successive cutoff lists and lowering the eligibility marks have done little. This serves to render the concession infructuous. Unfortunately, there is no provision to extend the vacant seats to general category candidates. These, therefore, go waste.
<b>The authorities ascribe their inability to fill up the vacancies for two reasons. One, many quota applicants do not figure on the Centre's OBC list; and two, many whose names are on the merit list prefer to enter via general category, possibly because it is not demeaning. One might add a third reason which is universally applicable to all economically deprived people. Irrespective of the caste, studies show that less than 10 per cent of India's youth actually go to college. This claim is believable considering that about 20 per cent of children never finish school</b>. A huge number boasts of being Xth fail. Thus, the Government would be better advised to ensure universal secondary education before trying to lure voters with reservations in higher education.
Livelihood needs are behind the acutely high school dropout rate. By dangling the bait of admission into the IITs, IIMs and English-dominated colleges, the ruling regime is offering the intended beneficiaries cakes when all they really seem to want is bread. The colossal failure to address basic economic problems and to enforce even primary education for all children in the country ensures that the educational quotas for OBCs, as well as SCs/STs, can never be filled up. Unless, of course, the Human Resource Development Ministry, in its dubious wisdom, is planning to catapult Vth pass and Xth fail students into a portal of higher learning and specialisation on special grounds. It is not implausible that the State legislatures and the Parliament have members who are anti-national, semi-literate, adventurers and criminals.
<b>To revert to the OBC quota, reports emanating from Delhi colleges are edifying. Some instances may be cited. Dr Inderjeet, Principal of College of Vocational Studies, stated in a press report dated July 13 that despite increasing OBC relaxations in every consecutive cut-off list, the college had failed to fill up all the reserved seats. As per a newspaper report, dated July 3, Sri Venkateswara College had only six admissions against 60 seats in humanities courses. Another daily reported on July 9 that most colleges, though having closed admissions for the general category to a majority of subjects after the third cut-off list, intended to declare a fourth admission list for OBC students as their seats lay vacant. Indraprastha College for Women had recorded 15 admissions against 70 OBC seats; Hans Raj had admitted 35 students against 90 seats; Gargi College had 50 admissions against 108 seats; Dayal Singh College (morning) Principal Inder Bakshi also cited a dearth of applicants for the reserved berths.</b>
In these circumstances, it is shocking not to pass on the vacancies to deserving general category students. The HRD ministry must urgently review the whole reservations exercise and the quantum of seats that should be set aside for OBCs and for SCs/STs on the basis of the data on the actual number of seats filled. Incidentally, the marks relaxation for SCs/STs is 40 per cent. The parameters used by the Mandal Commission to list OBCs also need to be reviewed, with complaints pouring in of some segments having been excluded and others unfairly included.
The most objectionable feature of affirmative action that hinges on quotas in education and jobs is that policy-makers are using the lowest common denominator as the benchmark for setting aspirational goals for young Indians. This effectively ensures that the country will never rise above the mediocre, at best, and plummet to the nadir, at worst. The additional danger is that politicos will increasingly view economic ills through the caste prism-a provocative and unreliable index of social conditions-and devise remedies accordingly. This is a sure formula for fragmentation of society, and turning the clock back.
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Pioneer.com
Anuradha Dutt
Even after third cut-off list, colleges have vacancies
The Congress-led UPA coalition's plan to encash 27 per cent OBC quota in centrally-funded higher educational institutions is bound to fail as colleges in Delhi report that there are few takers for the reserved seats. This pre-election ploy to woo the OBC vote-bank by enforcing reservations in the elitist IIMs, IITs, medical colleges and other institutes, funded by the Centre, seems to have come a cropper with a large number of seats staying empty. Many colleges in Delhi, despite giving the maximum relaxation of 10 per cent in marks, have found the response by the targeted section quite poor. Successive cutoff lists and lowering the eligibility marks have done little. This serves to render the concession infructuous. Unfortunately, there is no provision to extend the vacant seats to general category candidates. These, therefore, go waste.
<b>The authorities ascribe their inability to fill up the vacancies for two reasons. One, many quota applicants do not figure on the Centre's OBC list; and two, many whose names are on the merit list prefer to enter via general category, possibly because it is not demeaning. One might add a third reason which is universally applicable to all economically deprived people. Irrespective of the caste, studies show that less than 10 per cent of India's youth actually go to college. This claim is believable considering that about 20 per cent of children never finish school</b>. A huge number boasts of being Xth fail. Thus, the Government would be better advised to ensure universal secondary education before trying to lure voters with reservations in higher education.
Livelihood needs are behind the acutely high school dropout rate. By dangling the bait of admission into the IITs, IIMs and English-dominated colleges, the ruling regime is offering the intended beneficiaries cakes when all they really seem to want is bread. The colossal failure to address basic economic problems and to enforce even primary education for all children in the country ensures that the educational quotas for OBCs, as well as SCs/STs, can never be filled up. Unless, of course, the Human Resource Development Ministry, in its dubious wisdom, is planning to catapult Vth pass and Xth fail students into a portal of higher learning and specialisation on special grounds. It is not implausible that the State legislatures and the Parliament have members who are anti-national, semi-literate, adventurers and criminals.
<b>To revert to the OBC quota, reports emanating from Delhi colleges are edifying. Some instances may be cited. Dr Inderjeet, Principal of College of Vocational Studies, stated in a press report dated July 13 that despite increasing OBC relaxations in every consecutive cut-off list, the college had failed to fill up all the reserved seats. As per a newspaper report, dated July 3, Sri Venkateswara College had only six admissions against 60 seats in humanities courses. Another daily reported on July 9 that most colleges, though having closed admissions for the general category to a majority of subjects after the third cut-off list, intended to declare a fourth admission list for OBC students as their seats lay vacant. Indraprastha College for Women had recorded 15 admissions against 70 OBC seats; Hans Raj had admitted 35 students against 90 seats; Gargi College had 50 admissions against 108 seats; Dayal Singh College (morning) Principal Inder Bakshi also cited a dearth of applicants for the reserved berths.</b>
In these circumstances, it is shocking not to pass on the vacancies to deserving general category students. The HRD ministry must urgently review the whole reservations exercise and the quantum of seats that should be set aside for OBCs and for SCs/STs on the basis of the data on the actual number of seats filled. Incidentally, the marks relaxation for SCs/STs is 40 per cent. The parameters used by the Mandal Commission to list OBCs also need to be reviewed, with complaints pouring in of some segments having been excluded and others unfairly included.
The most objectionable feature of affirmative action that hinges on quotas in education and jobs is that policy-makers are using the lowest common denominator as the benchmark for setting aspirational goals for young Indians. This effectively ensures that the country will never rise above the mediocre, at best, and plummet to the nadir, at worst. The additional danger is that politicos will increasingly view economic ills through the caste prism-a provocative and unreliable index of social conditions-and devise remedies accordingly. This is a sure formula for fragmentation of society, and turning the clock back.
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