Article that appeared in Deccan Herald, 6th February 2009
| IN PERSPECTIVE | |
| Reservation for Dalits in varsities | |
| By Ambrose Pinto | |
| Dalits feel that while political reservation is extended easily, there is resistance in education. | |
| The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have finally managed to get the Human Resource Development Ministry to drop its proposal to reserve posts for SCs, STs and OBCs in faculty recruitment. The faculty had vehemently opposed the circular of the Government of India, which reserved teaching posts in Central Universities and Deemed Universities for SCs/STs and assistant professors in IITs. The present bill titled “SC/ST Reservation Bill-2008”, removes reserving teaching posts for SCs/STs in the above institutions. The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Reservation in Posts and Services) Bill, 2008 moved by the Department of Personnel and Training in the Rajya Sabha in December 2008 has listed IITs among institutes of national importance which can be exempted from reservation of posts. The 47 institutes that will skip faculty reservation once the legislation gets Parliamentary approval include the seven older IITs, the seven IIMs, Aligarh Muslim University, Allahabad University and AIIMS. Also excluded from the faculty reservation ambit are 19 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Banaras Hindu University, Delhi University, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, Visva Bharati in West Bengal, Victoria Memorial, National Library, Indian Museum — all in Kolkata, and the Indian War Memorial in New Delhi. The legislation is pending Parliamentary approval and exempts institutes of excellence from reserving posts and the IITs are among these. The Dalit groups are up in arms against the order. There are three types of reservation in the Constitution for SCs/STs. The one considered most important is political reservation. The other two are reservations in educational institutions and employment opportunities. After every 10 years, the political reservation gets extended by amending Article 330 and 332. Through political reservation 119 members of the SC/ST community get elected to the Parliament and 1050 MLAs get elected to the state legislatures. Invariably, political reservation gets fully implemented while there has been resistance for the implementation of reservation in services and education. There are questions being raised by members of the Dalit community for the easy extension of political reservation and the reluctance to extend other kinds of reservation. They opine though there is no strong demand from society to extend political reservation, it is always extended without much pressure for it creates stooges, who can dance to the tunes of the political masters in different parties. The other issue about SC/ST reservations is that there are several constitutional provisions for reservations but hardly any executive orders with provision of punishment for non-implemention. There are various examples on how reservations have been sabotaged. Previously there was a vacancy-based roster, which benefited SC/ST/OBCs. In this system whatever the posts may be, they were divided as per reservation percentage meant for SC/ST/OBC and General. The system has changed into post-based roster system. In this system every post is assigned to particular category and for getting one SC seat, there should be at least eight seats of employment. Among eight seats, the seventh will be given to SC category and 13th one to ST category. If there are less than seven appointments at a time, not a single one is given to SCs/STs. The Dalits think that this is a conspiracy. Previously all the seven seats were distributed among SCs/ STs/OBCs and General group. But by this new roster system only general candidates benefit. Single post reservation has also been cancelled. The argument of the anti-reservationists have been that there are no candidates and the available candidates are not suitable. Dalits can fight their battle by filing a case in the Supreme Court, a decision the section of the Dalits have yet to arrive at. The second one is not to allow the bill to pass through the Lok Sabha. The other is what Ambedkar had instructed them, “My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organise. With justice on our side I do not see how we can loose our battle…For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality.” It will depend on the choice Dalits make. (The writer is principal of St Joseph’s College, B’lore.) | |
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