debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray) (03/29/85)
> The army was called to the western city of Ahmedabad today to quell > rioting ... > The rioting grew out of student protests against increases in > government job and college admission quotas for backward classes ... I've always been uncomfortable about quotas based on ancestry. I do believe that if quotas were to be necessary at all -- and I can't see a defensible need for them beyond college/university admissions -- they should be based on economic status rather than caste. Any comments? -- Saumya Debray SUNY at Stony Brook uucp: {allegra, hocsd, philabs, ogcvax} !sbcs!debray CSNet: debray@sbcs
raghu@ut-sally.UUCP (Raghunath Ramakrishnan) (04/01/85)
> >I've always been uncomfortable about quotas based on ancestry. I do believe >that if quotas were to be necessary at all -- and I can't see a defensible >need for them beyond college/university admissions -- they should be based >on economic status rather than caste. Any comments? >-- >Saumya Debray > i agree. while it is true that there are many people from the 'backward' castes who need help in the form of reservations, their need stems from their economic status rather than their lineage. as a matter of fact, those people who need help the most are often without the basic education required to benefit from these reservations, and many who take advantage of them (the reservations) are wealthy, well-educated and certainly stand in no need of further help. on the other hand, there are many poor people from the so called 'forward' castes who do need such help. so if the objective of these reservations is to extend help to those who need it, in order to make the system more equitable, economic status seems to be a better yardstick to measure need with. i doubt that anyone would argue that these reservations are by way of revenge or restitution for the injustices done to the 'backward' castes by the 'forward' castes. such injustices (and admittedly, they are not entirely in the past, especially in backward areas) are best addressed by a seriously administered punitive approach. not only does the system of caste-based reservations fail to achieve its objective of an equitable (and, by extension, a more integrated) society, it is in fact self-defeating. it has made the 'forward' castes feel like second class citizens, and it has underlined the caste system. for people who benefit from the system, it is not an unmitigated blessing: they are branded in some sense as inferior, and come away feeling defensive about their priveleged status. actually though, i don't feel too much sympathy for the rich kid who becomes a doctor because he is from a 'backward' caste. i feel rather worried about his patients though! a more fundamental question is whether any kind of reservation is good, since it devalues individual merit and ability. personally, i think it is justified, in a limited sense, because any measure of ability should consider the opportunities that the individual had to develop that ability, if it is to measure the true potential of that individual. however, if the system has reservations at all levels of the hierarchy, the loss in quality cannot be sustained. to summarise: i think a system of reservations based on economic status (or some other reasonable yardstick) would be justified as a means of determining entry into a program (initially, at both the college and job levels, later just at the college level), but not as a determinant of promotion through the job hierarchy. on a realistic note, since a vast majority of voters are from the 'backward' castes, i doubt that we will see any major departure from the present system of caste-based reservations.
percy@amdcad.UUCP (Percy Irani) (04/02/85)
> > The rioting grew out of student protests against increases in > > government job and college admission quotas for backward classes ... > .... for them beyond college/university admissions -- they should be based > on economic status rather than caste. Any comments? > -- > Saumya Debray Not economic status or caste or colour. Just merit my dear chap. Economic status/caste/colour may get a lot of nincompoops in the colleges/Univs and cause frustration to the talented/intellegent many who probably could not afford the college/university fees.