Monday, June 12, 2006
I am not one for opinion rants. But that precedent will unfortunately have to be broken. Yes, the thorn in the flesh is the whole Reservation shindig.
To start things of, Yes I support Reservations. And yes I think they should be caste based.
Which caste blocks should be included and the extent of the opportunity pie is something I would leave to experts.
I think the protesting students and the whole "do away with reservations" voice, is missing a very important point. Large sections of society - the backward castes for example - have been traditionally deprived of education, livelihood options and other social opportunities. And their lack of access to opportunity isn't a product of them having less potential or less ability.
Centuries of dominance by upper castes by way of education, livelihood options, governance and policy making - has ensured that the backward castes have remained only on the fringe of growth and empowerment. With such divisions, with such anomalies are we an equal society? If we are not an equal society, how can we expect one and all to compete on merit?
I live in urban India, which is a pretty dolled up version of the country, low on the real problems and high on the post-liberalization glam. But yet, I do not know of a single forward class working as a domestic help in my building or as a facility staff at my workplace.
Independence means nothing, nor does a booming sensex. The backward classes at independence were atleast a century behind everybody else. We raised the tri-color at red fort and said - we are all equal now, start running...run like the wind!
It doesn't work that way! Even if they ran like the wind, they started a century behind the start line anyways.
I have worked with the Chinese, and boy is their English funny. This in spite of the Chinese government over the last decade pumping the largest sum of money - not into technical education, nor medicine, but yes English. This is probably the first generation of Chinese who are actually learning English in school. Obviously they don't match up to us yet, because our education in English is already 3 or 4 generations old.
Yes of course, with seats being reserved, a large number of students with apparently "more merit" will miss out. It's sad. But that unfortunately is the cost we will have to pay as a nation.
A backward step? Maybe. But only so that we can give the fellow Indian who has fallen behind, a helping hand.
Labels: World and us
