Most people questioned the genuineness of this move, which came into force on the brink of this year’s general elections. However, in a nation where reservations, especially in the education sector have been questionable, this move is a sigh of relief to those students who have invariably faced the brunt of their misfortune, and yet strive to achieve their dreams. Besides, the fact that the HRD minister has proposed to multiply the number of seats in the universities, rather than squashing the existing numbers and strangling the existing reservation channel, speaks volumes about the idea of inclusion.
Processed with VSCO with a6 preset
With an increase in quota, the number of seats for students, even who are meritorious, are decreasing. The problem lies in the fact that the system has failed to realise how easily people in quotas, apart from EWS, may not need quota to get into any institution because they have the ability in terms of knowledge. But, at the same time, there may be many in the general quota who need to be helped, and hence, there might not be a dire need of increasing quotas along with which comes the burden of increasing seats, as it would cause inconvenience.
Having done my graduation from one of the crème-de-la-crème colleges of Delhi University, we saw a shortage of proper infrastructure where a class of 60-odd students filled in the classrooms with significantly less capacity. Additionally, the funds have been cut drastically in recent times, so, a question arises about whether it is possible to accommodate this increase meaningfully. If we can, then, the 10% reservation would not affect the general category students’ situation drastically, and might be a good step towards equality. A need-based quota is a better step than a caste-based one.
Due to the absence of data on the number of poor Indians in the upper castes, the government seems to have no clue on how many economically weaker people are going to be benefited from the 10% quota. Once the government is able to crack this problem, then, this quota will massively help the EWS. This quota still needs some solid ground work because even if this reservation is being adopted by the government colleges such as the IITs and University of Delhi, the private colleges are still quite apprehensive to carry on with this quota system.
