“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime” – Anonymous
This Sunday, (21st of May 2006), Vikram, Bahubali and I were on M. G. Road in Bangalore, out there for some shopping, when we saw a group of people lined up with papers stuck to their chests claiming ‘I am against reservations’. I have a very strong view on the reservations, and so do Vikram and Bahubali. We decided to join. We stood there for about an hour till it got a bit dark. Around 7:15, we were given candles and then we stood with candles in our hands, showing our stand.
I would say it was a success, in the sense that quite a few people noticed us and it truly was a silent rally. No screaming, no lathi-charge. Even the police people deployed there were helpful and they got into talks with some of us, and even they supported our cause!
We rounded off with walking to the Mahatma Gandhi statue. The organizers told us of the plight of students at AIIMS — they’d been rusticated from their colleges and hostels. They had no place to stay or go — just because they voiced their opinions.
Sad, indeed. But the thoughts crossing my mind while I was standing there in the rally was democracy is working in India — this is how the people tell the leaders they elected about what they feel should be done. It’s a different issue that leaders will choose for the people what they think is best for them.
With coalition governments now the norm, agendas of the parties involved are decided before we go to the polls, and we know which party is going to do what in the next five years. This bit about increasing reservations, however, was not on the agenda of the Congress as far as I can remember.
However, I support reservations, but they should only be based on economic considerations. Also, some reservations can be made for rural population.
There are many cases where well-to-do people belong to the OBC or SC/ST or any other class, and inspite of having a good environment to study and get into good colleges, youth from this class are found to exploit exactly these reservations.
In fact, leaders get voted in certain areas, I hear, based on promises made by them that they’ll declare a specific family an OBC family if that family votes for them. (Joint families in India aren’t uncommon and they do have a large vote share.)
My take:
- Support reservations at the primary schooling level. Till the 12th standard. Build more schools.
- Support some reservation for EBCs (Economically backward class) and people from rural area.
- Do not spoon-feed people who’ve already made it past the 12th. They should fend for themselves. If they weren’t good at this level, they won’t be much better off later.
- Reservations (not based on merit) at the post-graduate level (IITs, IIMs, AIIMS) is ridiculous — no way this should be implemented.
- For EBCs, provide monetary support at any level. (Making sure merit is not compromised)
- Remove the concept of castes. In a learned society, no one is inferior or superior. We have to get rid of this. No one should ask for the castes. Unless it’s for things like statistics that identify how a tribe has been evolving, moving around, etc.
>Read your blog.pitiable.Here is mine http://www.emotionalzombie.blogspot.com/
“You say, if a student knows a seat is reserved for him he is not going to work towards it. Ask yourself- If a person knows Education is subsidized for his kids, food items are subsidized for him, is he going to work? Isn’t it harming the Economy? Isn’t the highly subsidized education we avail a classic example of social injustice? “
>Initially, I couldn’t understand what you thought was pitiable: my views in the blog, or the state of affairs.
Read your quote and the blog; got to know it’s the latter. This quote you have against reservations is also nice!
>I am a 1st yr. college student & belong to the SC category. But I am totally AGAINST this reservation system. I recently got admitted to the top college in my state, just because of my caste. And I got less than 100 mks in AIEEE 2011. I feel like being trapped in a web of disgust. All my college mates are toppers (from GEN cat, having great ranks and 90% of them scored >90% in 12th boards, whereas I, just 80%). I think (no, I'm sure) I'm the worst student in the college with the worst rank. I don't understand how will I compete with these toppers for the next 4 yrs…
Another thing: Why was this caste system started at all in this country? My mates hardly talk to me just because I belong to lower caste. Was it my fault to be born in this community? Would there have been any such situation if there was nothing such as caste? Humans make dirty mistakes, and they themselves suffer due to them.
oh that’s cool that you got a admission by the reservation and also you are against a reservation.
If you felt shame then why you don’t try this year for admission without help of reservation, ???will You try??? No…
Dude you got a chance to study in a good college, and if anybody don’t talk to you because of your Cast , They people are very cheap of mind, Ignore it and Concentrate on your study and prove that you are don’t waste your chance of study because there are many of student which are not able to study because of this castism in rural area.
Many of you student can not complete their education even not till primary education because of Untouchability.
Only economical condition and parent’s education qualification considered for reservation.
And there should not any caste indicator last name in any document so that anyone can say whatever they like to say about their caste as there is no way to proof of any person’s caste.
Im obc but feel that life of poor general caste is more tough as all of their caste getting marriage is tough , job tough, education is tough and there is no way to get out from it.
People what their grand people did to us is now we do with them.
Well money matters today .
Also now days only rich people enjoying reservations in this and they are more harmful to poor brothers because they are backed by “reservations + money + resources” and rest are at same position.
I must support reservations system like in obc by a creamy layer on all whether sc/st or minorities.
Note application in obc are higher in competition but reservations% is less
But % of sc/st are very high as compared with competition.
Personally, I feel that since God has made us equal, we should not encourage reservation of any kind in our systems – jobs / admissions. Whenever we reserve place for someone on these foolish basis, we are snatching away the rights from deserving candidates.
This reservation system should be removed from the country..as one side we are thinking of unity among india and another side we are just dividing indians on the basis of cast…the people should be divided on the basis of effort and dedication towards their goal , not on the basis of cast yes, the preference can be given to handicapped people…..so these are something which disunite the people.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/India-Against-Reservation/144605118983530
https://www.facebook.com/pages/India-Against-Reservation/144605118983530
are u real indian then support us
no, this is not correct that your mates are harsh towards you because of your caste but because of the priorities which are given to you by the government. Government is doing this cheap job so that minority group people have more population in our country and who can full up their vote banks. A common man doesn’t know the basic harms of the reservation given in our country. I doesn’t mean that reservation should be stopped but give it to the people in need. They are harsh because they have felt their exploitation. In actual ,they are not the one’s who are being exploited, in this running you are also exploited but have never felt it in actual…….