An endless debate, the unresolved question : Reservation!
The issue of 'Reservation' in India has been debated endlessly for years now: in online forums, in social gatherings, in educational institutes.. everywhere. It's pitfalls have been debated, the advantages have been discussed, changes have been advocated to the system and so on. But it has still not been sorted out, it is still a highly inefficient and misused system which is not serving the purpose it was originally introduced for.
There are endless stories coming out regularly on how the system doesn't work properly. The latest I read was this article which shocks you with the fact that you can get an entrance into an engineering or a medical college by scoring a 0 in the exam!! Does this not make you feel frustrated? And shocked? And angry? Is this correct, is this what we want in our future? Don't countries achieve greatness based on merit alone? And we are creating a generation seeing merit give way to other considerations.
The reason given for such a system is that it is trying to undo the injustice faced earlier by certain sections of society. But is this how that can be corrected? By giving unequal opportunities to the other section now? No, this is not the right way forward. One wrong cannot be undone by another wrong. You need to do a right to undo a wrong.
All of us have our own views on this issue, and what I think can be a possible solution is as follows.
1. Firstly, I think that a case can be made on giving reservations on the basis of economic status but definitely not on the basis of caste alone. A poor but intelligent person should be able to do well in life on the basis of his abilities rather than be limited by the financial limitations of his family. For such a person, providing him with better resources to help him achieve what he is capable of is justified and in the long term beneficial for the country too!
2. Secondly, merit should never be compromised, ever. For people from different backgrounds, giving them similar resources as others is the way to go forward. Giving them the means to achieve the results is more important than giving them the results in a platter. To that effect, I think giving better and equal educational facilities is a lot more important than giving them free seats to jobs or even professional colleges. Provide them with everything to make them capable of achieving it on their own. That is the best way to uplift sections of the society in the long-term.
As with most such discussions, this may or may not be implementable. And may have its own loopholes too. But in the long term for the betterment of our country, we need to look at ways to improve the system rather than go backward to a point where there is no return.
There are endless stories coming out regularly on how the system doesn't work properly. The latest I read was this article which shocks you with the fact that you can get an entrance into an engineering or a medical college by scoring a 0 in the exam!! Does this not make you feel frustrated? And shocked? And angry? Is this correct, is this what we want in our future? Don't countries achieve greatness based on merit alone? And we are creating a generation seeing merit give way to other considerations.
The reason given for such a system is that it is trying to undo the injustice faced earlier by certain sections of society. But is this how that can be corrected? By giving unequal opportunities to the other section now? No, this is not the right way forward. One wrong cannot be undone by another wrong. You need to do a right to undo a wrong.
All of us have our own views on this issue, and what I think can be a possible solution is as follows.
1. Firstly, I think that a case can be made on giving reservations on the basis of economic status but definitely not on the basis of caste alone. A poor but intelligent person should be able to do well in life on the basis of his abilities rather than be limited by the financial limitations of his family. For such a person, providing him with better resources to help him achieve what he is capable of is justified and in the long term beneficial for the country too!
2. Secondly, merit should never be compromised, ever. For people from different backgrounds, giving them similar resources as others is the way to go forward. Giving them the means to achieve the results is more important than giving them the results in a platter. To that effect, I think giving better and equal educational facilities is a lot more important than giving them free seats to jobs or even professional colleges. Provide them with everything to make them capable of achieving it on their own. That is the best way to uplift sections of the society in the long-term.
As with most such discussions, this may or may not be implementable. And may have its own loopholes too. But in the long term for the betterment of our country, we need to look at ways to improve the system rather than go backward to a point where there is no return.
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