A theory for Reservations


Well, for last few days I was planning to formulate a theory taking in account various parameters. But I opened "The Hindu" yesterday night and I came across following two articles.

1. (22 May 2006)

Meeting the challenge of Mandal II
Satish Deshpande and Yogendra Yadav

http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/22/stories/2006052202261100.htm

2. (23May 2006)

Reservation — an alternative proposal
Satish Deshpande & Yogendra Yadav

http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/23/stories/2006052305841100.htm

This kind of answers my questions. Though things could be done with more care and some parameters could be reduced/substituted with alternate parameters which are more practical to obtain. But I am quite happy with it.

I was also surprised to read that JNU has empolyed this method for its exam system. I just hope that soon IITs and IIMs will also consider of such theory. At least when they will be forced to have reservations. In social sciences there can not be any absolute theoreies because of large number of parameters involved but one could be fare enough.

I had got this idea while discussing with my collegues a few months back to decide whether a batsman is out of form. One can associate an index with a batsman depending on various parameters and consider his record in patches (e.g. in patches of 6-7 matches).

Reservation - a pondering question

Well these days there is a wave of issue going on more popularly called "Mandal-II". Let us think it in terms of questions for a moment.


The facts are:

1. 70% of our population leaves in villages and slums (earning less than Rs. 100/- per day or Rs. 3000/- a month) which are far from being equipped with modern facilities. More than 40% of our population live "Below Poverty Line" BPL (according to the Government of India a person earning Rs. 10/- per day defines poverty line which constitute 25% of our population, what a pity! But here I have assumed earning level Rs. 30-40/- per day). We refer here the group of 30% people who are so called forward as "elite group" and the rest of the 70% will be called "OBC".
2. Only 3-4% of total of 20+ age group people are graduate. Only 7-8% of 20+ age groups of our population make to a college after going through schools.
3. We have history of being discriminator with caste. Till 1990 (before Mandal-I) nearly 75-80 % of the Government system and jobs were filled by the people not in OBC, i.e., coming from 30% population (elite group) of people. Needless to say for several hundred years a group of people "elite group" thought that being educated or getting education was hereditary to them only.


Some questions are:

1. How to bring up people from Backward Class (referred as OBC) which constitute 70% of the population?
2. How to increase the number (3-4%) of graduates in our country to better figure?
3. Can one make education system free of cost (which it is at present except some institutions like IIT's or IIM's) keeping in mind the large number of people being BPL?
4. Can one figure out a way to provide monetary help to OBC class than just letting them go everywhere?
5. Is there a way to bridge the social gap between elite group and OBCs which are more famously depicted in some of the 70's 80's bollywood movies?

Pros and Cons of reservation:

1. Are we demeriting deserving candidates, so called SOCIAL-INJUSTICE?

Actually, surprisingly NO! it's more of our education system which makes it look like that.

Let me illustrate it by an example. Let us pick up one candidate each from elite group call him 'A' and OBC call him 'B'. Suppose both of them are average student having finished their schooling. Naturally 'A' has more knowledge of the world, has been in possession of many more books and is a bit of aggressive as well. One can always set up a question paper which will benefit A but will be just out of reach to B. The examples are entrance examination systems of IIT's, IIM's and most of the prestigious medical colleges. Though you wouldn't notice it. For example, the 60% requirements by IIT's to appear for JEE obviously debars candidates coming from poor places where eduction system is not good, they don't have good teachers and barely learn enough to pass in schools. They were not even presented with "good books" (e.g. Irodov's solved or Brilliant tutorials etc.) to learn from and were never fortunate enough to attend "coaching classes". To enter IIM's you have to be speaking fluent English, easygoing, so called 'smartness' which you cann't imagine for a guy coming straight from a Karnataka village. I refuse to believe that no one from a village who cann't speak English can not compete with others in IIMs.


2. Why not to provide monetary help and bring them up to standard?

Well government has tried that for last 50 years. Our country being so huge and much poor for that number, it is almost impossible to work out any method for doing that. We just have 7-8 % people in colleges, even then all of the colleges and universities have more number of students than they can handle.

3. Are reservations justified?

No! But it's consequences, yes. It has helped in last 10 years to remove the discriminatory logic that the logic of being educated is hereditary. It feels good (if you are human) that the son of my housekeeper became doctor and treats me whenever I an in bad health. Mind you ! He is a good doctor else I wouldn't go to him (I am not obliged to go 50% times to an OBC doctor).

4. Can you imagine this in the modern world where everyone goes by logic?

Yes! Some of the most developed countries have reservations too. France has reservations in some of its best universities and institutions for those who come from a certain area known to be backward.

5. Don't you see politics in it?

Yes there is. Because the people who are in OBC are supposed to be decided by there economic level not by there caste. But our local governments (state governments) decided that it's easier to go by caste. I don't blame them too much. In our country we try to cheat with taxes as often as we can. So it is almost impossible for a government to declare who is needy.

6. What about reservations for women?

Yes by the logic as above which is based on socio-economic stature we can argue by the discrimination of sex. Hence if there is reservation, in each of the classes 50% of it should be reserved for women.


disclaimer - this article is purely for academic interest.