There is good news for IIT aspirants from the minority community. The IIT-JEE Admission Committee has decided to implement 4.5 per cent reservation for them within the 27 per cent seats meant for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from this year.
Those minority candidates who had submitted the application forms online and have not mentioned their status can do so on the IIT-JEE website — http://jee.iitd.ac.in/obcminority.php — by giving an undertaking that they have a minority status and would submit the certificate before the exam on April 8.
The undertaking has to be given to the respective zonal offices before March 20.
IIT-JEE Chairman G.B. Reddy said the application forms did not carry this information as this development was recent. He asked the students to submit the undertaking first and later submit the certificate to claim reservation.
“We are giving enough time for candidates to secure the certificate. Non-submission of certificate will result in candidates not being considered for the category as a separate list will be prepared,” he said.
“It is for the State government to decide who fits in the minority category and certificate issued by the tehsildar concerned will be valid.”
Following the reservation, around 430 minority candidates are likely to get admission in the 17 IITs across the country going by last year's figure of total 9,500 odd seats.
Professor Reddy said the final figure would be available after March 25, when the IITs have been asked to submit the list of availability of seats. Some IITs increase the seats and some others introduce new programmes. IIT-Hyderabad has written to the JEE Chairman that it will start two new programmes this year — Civil Engineering and Engineering Science, with 25 seats each.
So far 5,07,607 applications have been received by the IITs, slight increase from last year's figure. But the final number may change as some candidates have applied in two zones, while some others have failed to provide the necessary documents. “We are writing to all such candidates to choose the zone they wish to appear in and also submit the documents immediately. The variation may not be huge,” Professor Reddy said.
Kanpur zone saw maximum applicants this year. Madras zone received about 78,000 applications. Last year, Bombay zone received the maximum applications. “We have altered the allocation of cities, where exam will be held, to different zones to ensure equal workload,” he said.
Keywords: Minority quota, 4.5% reservation, JEE, IIT admission
Vikas, OBCs and minorities are not handicapped people or mentally challenged people requiring boot camps or separate coaching etc. The idea of reservation is to eliminate the social discrimination factor that hinders a minority/backward caste to have extensive networks/contacts/opportunities that other people enjoy, and in getting successfully being selected to a premier institute. They need to pass the same goals as others once they are admitted to the course. So the game is levelled.
IITs are the crown institutes that have set such high standards that
few institutions can ever imagine to achieve. The idea of reservations
is to give a level field to all candidates despite their background.
This is fine normally and should be promoted. However with IIT's the
game is different. Reservation cannot be the answer to the question
"Is the candidate equipped to handle the rigor of IIT to meet certain
standards?" Rather an alternative must be provided. For eg:
1)Setup boot camps or training camps for OBC's and minorities
interested in a degree at IIT.
2)These camps should be subsidized by govt and operational costs be
raised from tax payers money.
3)A paltry amount be charged from all students to reduce drop-out
rates.
This will genuinely create a level field for all while ensuring that
reservation policy doesn't allow wannabe candidates within OBC's and
minorities. The idea should be equal growth and not equal access.
Access to success should be proportional to efforts!
iNDIA BEING one of the two largest populated country in the world, and the education is main stem and more so for Minority community and also most economically backward, the state and central government should actually increase this quota or increase no of seats for deserving candidates,so that more candidates from SC/ST and economically weaker section also has to come along with other deserving canditates for the vital education of IIT.
IF congress govt under the Presidenship of Mrs gandhi, is not coming forward, the future govt interest may not fortcoming,or the ELection manifesto for all parties has to project this vital education aspect during the next election.
This is unfortunate apart from being biased and unconstitutional.
The spirit behind any reservation should be to ensure 'equality of
status and opportunity' enshrined in the Preamble, present development
is against this spirit of equality a social justice- the two founding
pillars of democracy.
While protection of rights of disadvantaged groups is important, it is
equally important to secure the fundamental rights of the majority and
their confidence in democratic values.
It is true that Constitutional protections (Arts. 14,15,16,21)may need
be temporarily supplemented by reservation to overcome various
structural barriers and historical problems the candidates of
disadvantaged groups (SC/ST/OBC)have to face. However, minorities in
India are not placed at any historical disadvantage. Long since
India's freedom struggle, minorities have shared their just place in
India's political, scientific and social life, with majority.
reservation for them is arbitrary & against democratic growth
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