Been away for a long time.

I am not sure if anyone has read my blog ever, but I have been away for a loooooooooong time. Its a rather long delay and the the only excuse that I can give is that I am plain lazy. But recently i realized that I have a lot of things to say and too many opinions about everything to not use this wonderful avenue to express my thoughts.

The incident that infuriated me enough to start blogging again is the whole reservation issue happening in India. Already India is burdened by the whole reservation system existing for the Sheduled caste/ tribes. A bit of a background first. When the fathers of our nation sat down together to frame the constitution of our country they chose Mr. B.R. Ambedkar as the head of the committee. He, being the champions of the scheduled caste people (or as the mahatma called them the harijans), included reservation for these people. 12.5%reservation in all governmemt institutions was implemented. In 1970 due to the increase in the number of ppl belonging to SC/ST according to the 1961 census, the reservation was increased to 15%. Now if u include the reservation for minorities that becomes a huge % for reservation. Now our "esteemed" human resource developement minister Mr. Arjun "vote bank" Singh wants to incread the reservation for SC/ST to 16.25% because according to the latest census the number SC/ST ppl has increased again. It does nt end there now he wants to introduce 27% reservation for OBC s. This brings the total reservation to a lil more than 50%. This is an astonishing figure.

Now why did this happen. The intentions with which reservations were introduced were quite genuine. Due to illogical caste systems in the Hindu society, the SC/St s had suffered humiliation and abuse from the higher classes for centuries. These ppl were at the lower strata of the society when our country became independent. The aim of the reservation was to alleviate the position of these ppl. to help them gain respectability in the society. It was supposed to be implemented for a few years and the situation was supposed to be reviewed after the period expired.

What exactly happened? though the intentions were right as always the implementation went horribly wrong. After more than 50 years of independence the situation of the Sc/ST has nt improved a lot. Untouchability and other crude practices against such ppl is still going on in remote villages all over India. These ppl who actually deserve the benifit of the reservation are still struggling. Who is getting the benifit? Rich well to do ppl and ppl who have no barriers to achieve what they potentially can are recieving the benifit. I wish to state that this is not always the case but is the case with majority of the cases. I am an engineer and I was horrified to realize the kind of benifits that these ppl get. They get free scientific calculators, drafter kits, books, lesser fees etc etc along with of course the quota of seats RESERVED for them. do they deserve it?

Parallely let me tell you about this classmate of mine who had come from a remote village Channapatna which is in Bangalore district. He was a hard working student. He was the first person in his family to have entered an engineering college. He din't know english while the medium of instruction in all the colleges in karnataka is english. Now what were the facilities given to him? nothing. Ya thats the whole worrying issue. He was forced to live in a cheap hostel with 5 to 6 ppl in a room as he could nt afford the college hostel or the other boarding facilities near the college. He was harassed by his peers and his seniors at his hostel for studying too much. He generally used to skip his lunch because he could nt afford it. Inspite of all this he achieved an amazing 78% in 3rd sem which a lot of us, including me, could nt score. But the whole system finally caught up with him. As the subjects got more difficult and as the pressures on him increased, he started dropping subjects, he stopped coming to class because he felt frustrated and finally he dropped an year. All he needed was encouragement which came from no where. Who will tell the HRD minister his story.

Y r they pursuing the reservation policy even though it is nt showing much success? Dirty Vote Bank politics. No politician or party has the balls to try and remove it. They need to appease their votebanks. It has to be noted that SC/ST s make a significant percentage of the total population. By appeasing them the future of the party is secure. What about the future of the country? which politician bothers about it. Most politicians are power brokers to do wanting more and more power and money for themselves.

Reservation is evil because its a burden on the society. No one is getting benifitted by it. A meritous student cant get a seat because there is no reservation for him. A SC/ST student does nt achieve his best because he knows there is loads of reservations to take care of him right from his schooling to his job. It is pathetic when u think of the situation now. We have under qualified ppl getting plush jobs. SC/St doctors engineers and lots of other professional with limited skills are making more errors by the day and causing huge problems.

What is the solution? Now its easy to comment on this issue and say that there should be no reservation. But what about the truely deserving candidates, why should they suffer. Who will help the SC/ST ppl. I propose a list of probable solutions. it is thoroughly my opinion

1) any form of aid or incentive should be performance based. Only ppl who prove there worth should be given the benefits. Like only the top few studentsshould be given the free calculators, books n stuff.

2)any form of aid or incentive should also be need based. Only ppl who clearly cant afford it should be given aid.

3) setting up of technical professional colleges which teach in the local language. This might be depended upon but I am sure this wil help in a big deal. The Russians teach in russian, the japanese teach in japanese, the chinese teach in chinese n so one. So y do we have only english as the medium of instruction in India. If u dnt have books get it translated more than a few authors will be glad to allow it. I am sure it will help rural students who have undegone their entire education in the local language to continue their education in the language of their choice.

4) Reservation if it needs to exist at all, must consider the economic stature of the person only. The supressed class must be helped only when their is a genuine case of ill treatement or lack of oppurtunity.

5) there must be a definite plan to phase the reservation out. It is like they say " if u give a man some food its no use, teach him how to earn it". As long as there is reservation the ppl for whom these reservation exists will never work hard enough and so the quality is always going to suffer. They will know that whatever happens they r protected. Instead set deadlines and the situation should be reviewed at each deadline. This will benifit everyone in the picture.

6) Improve the distance eduction schemes in the country. every remote village in India should have access to these schemes through which technical education and expertise can be gained.

All the above suggestions and opinions are that of my own. I apologize if my thoughts have hurt anyone but I think the points have are very much valid. I would love to here from u after u have read this. [if neone does that is]