Saturday, July 6, 2013

Caste system in college admission

My cousin scored 1150/1200; comes from a very middle class family. The admissions are on and people who scored lesser than her - but belonging to Backward Caste, Most Backward Caste, Schedule Caste etc. - get admission in good colleges while she is waiting outside (as I write) for her chance to evaluate the available options. The Politicians keep allocating more and more percentage of seats to different castes and keep including different communities under more and more disadvantaged castes for vote bank politics. This is plain injustice for those who come under "General Category". 
I am ok with allocation as long as economically disadvantaged are given a chance to study. But people under Backward caste are not always backward. A classmate of mine in 12th standard belonged to Most Backward Caste and he came to school in Chauffeur driven car. While, I  belonging to General Category came from a very middle class family and drove to school in a cycle. I never did well in school, so personally did not get affected by the caste system. But my MBC classmate would have had access to a better school to many of his counterparts who did better in school but belonged to General Category.

Supreme Court - the upholder of justice in India - raises this issue regularly and asks the politicians the basis on which somebody is termed as disadvantaged, but no proper response is provided and present method of allocation continues. Now, the political establishment wants allocation in the prestigious IIT's and IIM's. The politicians should ideally focus their efforts on establishing a foolproof mechanism to identify economically disadvantaged in the society. Given that developing this mechanism is hard work, they have opted to take the easy route.
It is just a question of time before the Tipping point is reached and those (a significant percentage of the population) under the General Category revolt and the tide turns. 
I don't believe in no caste and for that matter I don't believe in no religion either. Just plainly try to look at things for what they are. This whole electoral politics is really harming this Nation. People who deserve good education don't always get access to good schools. This scenario reminds me of the Fountainhead story by Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand will be devastated to see what's happening in India. This inefficient allocation has to end. I am sure it will; just because it is so illogical.

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