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Bangalore: Academic experts in India's silicon hub are divided over the Supreme Court judgment on Thursday upholding 27 per cent reservation for students of other backward classes (OBCs) in central educational and professional institutions.
Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) former director P.G. Apte said OBCs do not really need this kind of concession, as they were not economically poor.
"I don't think OBC students have to be favoured with this kind of reservation, as a majority of them and their parents are well-to-do and have moved up the social strata over the five-six decades [after independence]," Apte said.
Infrastructure
"While there is need to continue with the 15 per cent reservation for SCs [scheduled castes] and 7.5 percent for STs [scheduled tribes] for social and historical reasons, extending the same to OBCs will put pressure on faculty, infrastructure and general category students," he said.
Though the apex court delivered the order with a string of riders for effective implementation, Apte said professional institutes such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and IIMs would face severe faculty shortage, inadequate infrastructure and resource crunch unless the government steps in and expands the capacity in time."
As IIM-B director Pankaj Chandra is travelling, officiating director and faculty member in-charge of academics said admissions for the new academic year 2008-09 have already been completed and additional in-take to implement the quota rule would be possible only in the next (2009-10) year.
Increasing inclusion
- Affirmative action started in India in 1950 when government jobs and places in state-funded colleges were allocated to the former "untouchables" of Hindu society and tribal groups.
- At present, 22.5 per cent of government jobs and seats in state-funded educational institutions must be allocated to the "Scheduled Castes" - mostly the former untouchables of Hindu society - and tribal groups. They are estimated to make up about 25 per cent of India's population.
- A further 27 per cent of government jobs have been set apart for other lower castes and disadvantaged communities, known as "other backward classes" (OBCs). This controversial 1990 decision led to violent student protests in which dozens of upper caste students set themselves ablaze.
- With the Supreme Court's latest ruling, the OBCs will also be entitled to an additional 27 per cent of seats in state-funded educational institutions, pushing the total caste-based educational quota in the country to 49.5 per cent.
- Twenty-two per cent of seats in the lower house of parliament and state legislatures are reserved for Scheduled Castes and tribal groups.
- In February 2008, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, tentatively extended lower-caste job quotas into the private sector, the first such policy in India to include private business in the quota system.
- Supporters of quotas say they are necessary as lower castes have historically had fewer opportunities for decent education. But critics say the move will ultimately affect the quality of education and professional services.
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