Here comes the quota

The news of imminent reservations for OBCs in IITs and IIMs is making some news. There is a lot of heartburn, at least in the blogs, over this decision. The mainstream media is however being politically correct and we have just factual reports on this so far. Here are some of my thoughts, at the risk of being politically incorrect.

So far, reservations have been for the SCs and the STs and they stand at 22.5%. However, many of the seats in the quota are not filled because enough students do not qualify. Quite a few students in the SC/ST category go through preparatory stages. From my experience it seems that somewhere between 10 to 15 percent of the students in any graduating batch are from the SC/ST quota. It is going to be much easier to fill up the OBC quotas as compared the SC/ST ones. In fact, it is my reckoning that if the government does a caste compositions survey of students in IITs the number of students in the OBC category will be appreciable; I would not be surprised at all if it actually exceeds the 27 percent mark. Again, I am saying this from my personal experience of knowing that many of my friends who would qualify through the OBC, and extrapolating the data. Therefore, this increase in reservation from 22.5% to 49.5% means that reservation is going to be actually visible in these hitherto untouched institutions. It is my opinion that this is going to change the very character of IITs and IIMs (no first hand experience here) from being a merit based society to just another run of the mill mediocre Indian school.

I can hear the question, "there is no reason why the OBCs cannot have merit" by now. This is not what I am trying to say. I know many absolutely brilliant people who would qualify through the OBC. The fact is, quota acts in a strange way in India. If you are able to clear the unreserved merit list, you are kicked up in there. So, theoretically, even if all the seats in the unreserved category are picked up by students belonging to say SC category, the SC quota would still be filled using the next available SC candidates. If there are not enough people who make it through, the bars are lowered. Given the kind of competition for these schools, and the fact that the OBC communities are actually pretty well off, it may very well be that those who make through are actually very very good.

But it is not that simple. The USP of the IITs and IIMs is the 'quality of their students' and the 'grueling selection process'. When discussing such subjective factors, perception is reality. Any change in the perception of 'quality' is bound to create a severe dent in the reputation of these institutions. It should also be added that those who get in would not be the best of the lot, many more deserving people will be left out.

This also brings me to another point. The presence of SC/ST quotas in IITs has some wiered aspects. Most of the folks who do come through these quotas do not do well in academics (not PC, but true). More often than not, they end up at the bottom of the class. Still, the concept of reservation carries them a long way. For example, there are reservations in IIMs too. So the folks who come to IITs using these quotas make their way through to IIMs through the quotas as well. And there lies one irony. One would expect that four years of training would make them good enough to compete in the real world, but they take a back door. One of the things that needs to be done to bring a semblance of sense to the current system of reservations is to make sure that one individual does not benefit from reservation more than once in the lifetime.

Another observation that one can make is that not all the people in quota are from impoverished families. In fact, one of the guys was so well off that he had a kind of library in his room and we used to borrow books from him.

Some 200 thousand students take the JEE each year and there are 3000 odd seats. It is not a far cry to say that there will be many more than 800 odd students (~27% of 3000) from quite well off OBC families in the 200 thousand. In this crazy competitive environment, the rich have the advantage anyway because of accessibility to coaching classes etcetera. Therefore, there is a very strong chance that the quotas are going to benefit the rich and not really the downtrodden. Same is true for the IIMs. Lowering the bar for these 'rich backward caste' folks is a travesty of the concept of the social justice that is supposed to hold together the argument for reservation.

Here lies the second irony. What was designed as the means of social upliftment is just going to make it easier for some folks born with silver spoons to have a better shot at life while not doing anything for those who really need it. It is my opinion that if reservation HAS to be there, only the doubly disadvantaged (perceived social disadvantage due to caste and real disadvantage because of economics) should qualify for special treatment.

Nevertheless, the concept of reservation in higher education is inherently flawed. The fact is that India is a huge country. Since the competition is so fierce, with only one to two percent people making to these top schools, reservation actually does not make any sense. There is an economic elite class in all castes/communities/religions, whichever way you want to classify the society. In each instance of reservation, it is the respective elites which will make merry. The small guy will always be taken for a ride.