Reservation Policy in Indian Institutes of Technology - Arguments in Favour of Reservation

Arguments in Favour of Reservation

The most important argument in favour of reservation is basically economic in nature. If there is discrimination and exclusion prevailing in any of the institutions, whether industry, educational institutions, it has a negative impact on the economic growth. In the absence of equal opportunity, a sizeable section of the society remain either unemployed or underemployed. The burden will be taken by a minuscule economic agents accessing opportunity to the mentioned institutions. Reservation as a form of positive discrimination should be welcomed for the national interest. But this shouldn't mean reducing the opportunity for the general categories. Government should try to accommodate all by creating more number of educational institutions. Some people consider the additional procedures for admission into the IITs as unnecessary and counter-productive. The opposition to the policy of reservation (through the preparatory course), and favoring direct admission is based on the following arguments:

1. In the past, a large number of seats remained vacant. According to some estimates, only 10% of SC/ST seats were filled due to lack of qualified candidates.. However, since 2010 hardly any reserved seats are left unfilled as enough candidates qualify on merit.
2. Candidates who did not have the basic minimum marks but were on the borderline were offered admission after spending on year studying preparatory course. They wasted a year as well as felt traumatized due to this preparatory course.In 2012, for the first time there was no need to have a preparatory batch since enough candidates qualified within normal parameters.

On the philosophy behind the process of reservation itself, the people in favour of reservation feel that reservation is necessary to undo and counter the 'evils' of centuries of caste system that prevailed in the country. Reservation proponents also contend that merit as it is defined today is something that is achieved with the help of cramming, tutoring, constant guidance, quality schooling and knowledge of English and poor Dalits, poor MBC's lack most of these. This (the argument cnetering on cramming, tutoring, etc.) the anti-reservationists do not accept, pointing out that not all high-scorers at the exams can hope to eventually succeed in translating their knowledge into skills, but low-scorers especially in higher education will also score badly on the skill ladder proportionately much more than high-scorers. They also suggest that the examination-based approach to merit evaluation calls for a modification in order to better reflect meritorious performance in practical demonstration of skills, but casteist reservation does not have anything to offer as a solution in this regard. Which, they add, only goes to expose the foul game of the politicians of India many of whom have a record of strongly alleged offences and crimes of numerous types.