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I believe that reservations based on caste considerations alone are not correct. The main criteria for reservation, if at all, should be the following factors:

1. Physical disability of any kind.

2. Financial capability of the candidate or his/her family to afford admission and pursue education in such prestigious institutes as IITs/IIMs and others.

Providing reservation for candidates who are physically and financially sound but relatively less capable/talented, on the basis of caste consideration only, would deprive the more talented and deserving candidates, who are either physically or financially challenged, from being admitted to such institutes. However, capable candidates from OBC/SC/ST etc., who fulfil the above (S.No.1 & 2) criteria also, can be considered in the general reservation quota based on such criteria.

I do agree with Mr.Mittal’s view. Our IITs and IIMs are some of the best quality colleges in the world.Because of these reservations, i think the quality may be diluted.

I feel this is a very sensitive and important topic. I agree to what Mr. Mittal and Spurthi have said. You shouldn’t try to win Formula1 with a car when you have a deflated tyre. It might take you to some distance, but later on, the whole performance would be affected. Thus, putting a drag on the other 3 tyres! I understand that you need to compete. So I think you should drive the car to the next garage and get a set of tyres that match and are ‘same’. It should only be used to reach the garage, not the finishing line. Replace it when it is not needed. There are places where you still need reservation, but there are many where it is used incorrectly. We need to know the limit to help and to be helped. You cannot deprive the country of its success because you have compromised and have put ‘incorrect leaders’ at the wrong time and at wrong places! This would adversely affect the pace! I am not against reservation. I am against those who define such things and then forget when to put a stop to it.

Regards, Bonny

The reservation is one of the factor which influence the advancement of a country and its development.. Unfortunately in India the reservations are still present after 60 years of the freedom. The poor are becoming poor and the rich are becoming richer.The reservations are helpful to the people who are economically backward. I have seen so many families in which all the members of the family are government employees.They have been enjoying the reservations for decades. now they become economically sound. they don’t need reservations.Because of those sort people a talented person is loosing the chance. Everyone knows that the economically backward should be benefited out of these reservations.But politicians are playing with their power.It is the duty of the educated to create awareness among everyone. Apart from all these the total % of reservations present should be decreased. So that the talent will be encouraged and it leads to the development of the country. I am not against the reservations but what i feel is these should help the talented who cant come forward due to their poor economic background it should help them to continue their education in the IITs and IIMs.

Regards , Sriram

Something on the lines of reservation exists in the US – it’s called “affirmative action” – basically, the African-American junta is given some benefits in order to encourage them to continue with studies. However, what was found was that the proportion of students graduating from the affirmative action program was lesser than the earlier proportion from the populace.

I guess this case suggests that reservations are not the way to encourage academic progress among people…..of course, in India, its an altogether different matter – there are a number of us who feel that reservations have been introduced due to “vote bank” requirements and have been sustained keeping the “vote bank” in mind

Cheers, Avinash

ya i agree that the topic is very sensitive and even i you consider wht happened with these backward classes and they must be given reservation to obvercome this situation then has anyone think that hat happens to these students after getting admission . they cannot copeup with the hectic schedule and the brainpower required this led to losing confidence in themselves and at times leads to suicide. whereas the other ge student who were far better than these reserved students fail to get what they deserve this even leads to losing confidence of the same . thus the whole loss is of the nation who is loosing double amount of manpower so reservation should be given in terms of promoting them in education at lower lever not at higher institutes

I don’t know much about this issue, but hope I can shed some light on the subject in another way. In my world, testing, I find that there are lots of ways to look at “casting’ better known as economic stratification, and reservations, better known as special circumstances.

Casting, economic stratification, is often dealt with by providing items, questions, that would be hard to answer if you are not exposed to in your life style, for instance playing tennis or golf at a middle to low income is most likely not going to happen. You can also have the same or a better income but not be exposed due to climate, etc., such as most Californians do not live in houses that have basements or mud rooms as there is little need for them. Providing questions about these types of things eliminates groups of people who have no experience with these topics. Test developers use field testing and statistical analyses to try to make sure their test items are fair but the field testing has to actually be done on a large number of candidates with varying backgrounds for this to be accurate. Often the reality of field testing is subject to financial considerations.

Making reservations is another problem that can be manipulated and used by the rich. My daughter, who was diagnosed language impaired by 2 years old and a gifted minor by 5 years old, qualified for special circumstances in taking entrance examinations for entering college. However, she was one of the only students who took the tests with special circumstances for college entry that had a special education status for more than one year for the particular highly desirer able small U. S. West Coast College. Real special education disabilities are usually discovered years before one takes a college entrance examination.

Most country tries their hardest to make college entrance fair, but seldom does this really happen. Best to luck to you and India with this is an ongoing problem that has no easy answers.

I guess its one thing to try and encourage a certain section of the society for education and it’s a totally different thing to create a law that everyone knows will be abused.

Just because you want to promote equal opportunities for one group, you cannot alienate the others and do away with opportunities for them. While the issue is sensitive, it is also obvious that any law that is passed will affect kids in schools and those preparing for colleges. How can one avoid the issue when it comes to the future of so many hard working kids?

Also, given “reduced seats” due to reservations, a lot of Indian kids will be going abroad to study – brain drain yet again.

The trouble is when governments think that they can provide equal opportunities to everyone by providing extra opportunities to one and lesser opportunities to another – how can this ever work?

I am sorry if it came across as rude.

I’m not being judgmental about physically handicapped people – I am talking about groups of people who are normally given privileges.

I can reword what I had to say in one line – “give a man an axe, and he will build a shelter”.

I hope you can understand my stance clearly now.

thanx for partly realising ur mistake. axe u are talking about is believed to be “reservation for the physically and/or financially challenged.” if so, i wud say u have realised fully, else it cud go on endlessly!

Again, I am not aware of all the aspects of school placement tests or the selection process for getting into colleges in India.

I do have a true story I would like to share about accommodations.

I have a daughter who is language impaired. She did not talk in any language until she was about 8 years old, due to hearing problems. When she went to take her college entrance examinations, she discovered that lots of other students taking the same tests with a learning disability had just been diagnosed by a private organization. (MOst real learning disabilities are discovered much earlier than the last year of secondary education.) MY daughter was diagnosed at the age of 2 years by the local public school system in the U. S. She passed her test without some of the special needs accommodations some of these newly classified special needs learners requested and got. (Some of these same learners went to the same school as my daughter and was not part of the meetings to set up their special education services for college.) She also took the Law School Entrance Exam, with only one special accommodations extension of time and passed. Again, there were candidates who had just been diagnosed from private organizations who required all sort of special accommodations and again were not at the meeting to set up their special education services.

This story brings to one’s mind, what are the requirements for an individual to get special accommodations? Can money buy accommodations?

@sachina: I agree; Also pd candidates are beyond the scope of the topic

You have misunderstood what I was trying to say. I am not saying that candidates paid to have the score they got. I am saying that candidates used the system to get special circumstances so that they had a better chance of scoring hirer.

I am trying to show you that even when governments try to make things fair often things are still not fair. I am also trying to make all of you see that governments should not be involved in making decisions about testings regulations. Every situation is different and should be reviewed by the group giving and grading the tests. They have a better idea of what is required and what it takes to get a particular score.

I also wanted you to look at the amount of responses that name self image/confidence as the main reason people fail. I am not sure what that has to do with the tests, but can tell you that you can not make any reservations, etc. that will change that fact.

My story about my daughter was a way of showing how people with money try to buy success at any cost. I should tell you a little more about my daughter. I told you my daughter did not talk until she was about 8 years old, that means she could not learn to read as she could not hear the sounds. When the public school first tested her, they came back with a very grim look at her future. My husband and I were told that our daughter would be lucky to finish high school and we should prepare ourself to this fact. We fought back. Our daughter was given an IQ test that was language oriented, of course she was not going to score well. We requested and got her retested with an non-verbal IQ test. She scored very high and was then considered a gifted minor. Now she was labeled language impaired and a gifted minor. People looked at her very differently then before. She was allowed to advance in math and given opportunities to learn to read differently than others. She even learned another language with a tutor and language pathologist who showed her how to make the sounds and allowed her to feel how the sounds vibrated so that she could copy the method.

Today, she is the office manager of a law office and she owns her own event planning business. She graduated from the University of Santa Clara and attended Golden Gate University as a law student. She still has problems today as she reads lips and uses other means to make sure she understands what she has been told, but she is a productive member of society. However, society would have sold her short.

The problems you are talking about are very much the same as what my family went through with my daughter. It takes more than making adjustments or reservations to create worth.