OBC Reservation: The Other Side of the Story

Verdict of the Supreme Court upholding the constitutional validity of the 93rd Amendment has put an end to the speculation on implementation of OBC reservation in the institutes of higher learning. Soon after the HRD ministry announced that reservations for Other Backward Class will be implemented a debate was started in the country. There is a virtue in that debate as after a very long time debate on the higher education was witnessed in the country. The only problem was that much of the argument was made in favour or against the reservation policy. This had destroyed the real potential of the issue and only led to sentimental and subjective approach towards the entire issue. The question of merit, basis for giving reservation, became centre theme and most of the people had made their argument in and around these two assertions.

The most significant aspect which is unfortunately not been given due importance in this entire squabble was the recommendations of Oversight Committee on the implementation of the New Reservation Policy in Higher Education Institutions which is commonly known as Moily Committee Report. Chapter 1, point 1.4 (d) of the report clearly elaborate the basic principle for introducing OBC reservation, “the moving sprit behind the new reservation policy will be expansion, inclusion and excellence”. These three aspects need to be discussed and emphasised for better future of Indian education system. Unfortunately, everything else came in the discussion and the prominent part was left untouched.

In contemporary India more than 35 percent aspirants of higher education is in the age group of 20-25 years. Amongst them only seven to eight percent of the aspiring youth get the chance of enrolment in higher education. There are many reasons for not joining higher education but the lack of educational institutes in India constricts the scope of getting admissions. After 60 years of our independence, India has 20 central universities, 222 state universities, seven IITs, six IIM, 20 National Institute of Technology and one AIIMS. According to the annual report 2006-07 of the HRD ministry number of students enrolled at higher secondary level in 2004-05 is 37,075,386 this figures drastically goes down if we go by the same report and look at the students pursuing higher education.

According to the available figures of the same period number of enrolled students in the higher education is 11,777,296. By simple arithmetic 34 percent of the student enrolled at the higher secondary level do not get into colleges. This gap can be understood by a plain example that almost 2.52 lakhs students apply for IIT test which has only 4,600 seats (which includes IIT/ITBHU/Indian School of Mines). In this just by the difference of one or two percent many students fail to qualify who otherwise can make it. Similarly, getting admission in any of the universities, central or state level is tough and sometime becomes impossible.

Private colleges are now been established in every corner of this nation but they charge exorbitant fees which everyone cannot afford. Whether one is willing or not the limited seats restricts access of students to higher education. Due to very limited options there is a tremendous family and peer pressure on every student to perform. This is lead to many neo-social problems like depression; tendency to commit suicide etc. According to an article published in Indian Journal of Pediatrics, almost 222 cases of suicidal death are reported in AIIMS from South Delhi from the period of 1st January 1991 to 31st December 2000, and the commonest age group is between 15-18 years. This is a perturbing fact as what is making young mind do loose faith in life.

The expansion of higher education is must in India and the solution to the present crisis is only be tackled if quality education is expanded and responsibility of this should be owned by the state. Education should be free and universal at the primary level and should be subsidised at the higher level. Many progressive student organisations have long standing demand that six percent of the GDP should be spend on education. This is not that only student organisations are demanding that the expenditure on education should be made six percent of the GDP but way back in 1968 Khotari Commission recommended that six percent of the GDP should be spend on education.

This is even been endorsed by UPA government in its Common Minimum Programme which clearly mentions that “the UPA government pledges to raise public spending in education to at least 6 percent of the GDP with at least half of this amount being spent of primary and secondary sector”. Negating the demand and recommendation of the Khotari commission UPA government till date even fails to fulfill its own promise of spending 6 percent of GDP on education and according to the HRD ministry the government in the year 2006-07 had spend 3.57 percent of the GDP on education. The current expenditure level of Indian government is still below the international average which is around 5 percent of the GDP.

From the last so many years not even once serious attention was paid by any government to carry reform in Indian education system. It is only after the announcement of the OBC reservations that the government had made a commitment to increase existing seats by 54 percent. The other benefits which are related with the seat increase can be seen in the terms of recruitment of both teaching and non-teaching staffs which was banned by the UGC after the process of liberalisation gained momentum in India.

According to the Moily committee Rs. 18, 197, 83 crore is requires for expansion of higher education which is due to 54 percent of seat increase. At present government is spending Rs. 1269.80 crore (2006-07) on education imagine once OBC reservation will be implemented with seat increasing, the current expenditure will go up in higher education and this is for overall development of our society. It is also not that government has taken a position that everything is been done in one year, reservation and seat increase can be implemented in the period of three years and autonomy is given to all institutes in order to adopt their method of implementation. Hence, it can be said that OBC reservation is a boon for higher education and those who are opposed to it are either ignorant or taking a position which is anti-student in nature. Infact, it is time to unite and fight from the other ills which have gripped our education system like privatisation, and hesitant approach of the government to expand the base education in general and higher education in particular.

The fight is long and tough, expansion of quality and subsidised education is the only answer to the problems and pitting of one section against other will only weaken our struggle of ‘jobs for all, education for all’. More such affirmative actions for other deprived sections like for girls and for minority community with the similar approach of seat increase will help the growth of education sector in India and will led nation to achieve the goal of being a knowledge super power.

The author of this article, Dhananjay Tripathi is a Research Scholar & Ex- Student Union President, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), writing for socio-political interest. He can be reached at dhananjayjnu@gmail.com.