Friday, July 10, 2009

"Reservation in StatuS Quo"

Recently I was going through The Times of India and on page 3,there was a report that 6000 seats reserved for the OBC's,SC's and ST's are left vacant at delhi university and another news of a poor girl committing suicide because of not making it to the DU's cut-off list...I was not holding a magnifying lense but I could see the magnified picture very clearly.So I surveyed various internet websites for a startling revelation...In india 49% of the seats in almost every college are reserved for the backward classes.Now who are these backward classes and what percentage of these people are there in our country ..ARE THEY POOR?DO THEY ACTUALLY CONSTITUTE 49% OF THE INDIAN POPULATION?..These are a few questions that came to our mind,so let me first tell u about these BACKWARD CLASSES FIRST.

The backward classes in India constitute schedule castes ,scheduled tribes and other backward classes.
Scheduled Castes
("SC"s) and Scheduled Tribes ("ST"s) are Indian population groupings that are explicitly recognized by the Constitution of India, previously called the "depressed classes" by the British. SCs/STs together comprise over 24% of India's population, with SC at over 16% and ST over 8%.

Distribution

Sachar Committee report of 2006 revealed that scheduled castes and tribes of India are not limited to the religion of Hinduism. The 61st Round Survey of the NSSO(National Sample Survey Organisation) found that almost nine-tenths of the Buddhists and one-third of the Sikhs in India belonged to the notified scheduled castes of the Constitution while one-third of the Christians belonged to the notified scheduled tribes of the Constitution.

ReligionScheduled CasteScheduled Tribe
Buddhism89.50%7.40%
Christianity9.00%32.80%
Sikhism3.70%0.90%
Hinduism22.20%9.10%
Zoroastrianism-15.90%
Jainism-2.60%
Islam0.80%0.50%

The Central Government of India classifies some of its citizens based on their social and economic condition as Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class (OBC). The OBCs are entitled to 27% reservations in public sector employment and higher education. In the constitution, OBCs are described as "socially and educationally backward classes", and government is enjoined to ensure their social and educational development.
Indeed these classes are underpriveledged,they have also faced a lot of atrocities in life.They were treated as untouchables but there is one more group that has always been underpriveledged-a group whom u find begging at the roadside,working at your homes and doing all kinds of menil jobs.IT IS NO CASTE,THIS COMMUNITY HAS NO RESERVATION.Yes you guessed it right ,its a POOR.

The World Bank estimates that 456 million Indians (42% of the total Indian population) now live under the global poverty line of $1.25 per day (PPP). This means that a third of the global poor now reside in India.A 2007 report by the state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) found that 77% of Indians, or 836 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees (approximately USD $0.41) per day with most working in "informal labour sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty."

The point I want to make is that there is reservation for the backward classes ...and out of these backward classes 40% live in urban areas and are financially sound..Now if we have to reserve seats for the unpriveledged then The government should also include POOR of upper castes in the reserved category.I often see people around me who are rich and come under backward classes and poor of upper castes...the former makes way to one of the best colleges in India and the latter are left jobless.
The government however feels that the Economic criterion cannot be the sole basis for determining the backward class of citizens contemplated by Article 16(4).

Here I have done a survey -the green rows show reserved seats and the red shows open...There were total 14 seats in UT CATEGORY-7 reserved and 7 open ....out of 7 reserved only 2 were occupied and out of 7 open all were occupied and stil many were left without any seat..This is RESERVATION and OUR DESTINY....My mind often asks me those 5 vacant seats could have gone to some POOR in the open category but my heart consoles and says keep working at it ,may be someone will listen to it someday.

PAINTING




UT

14









SC
1







ST
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Defence
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Phy. Challenged
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Freedom fighter
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Sports
1







NRI
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Open
7
9












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