Reservations

A lot has been talked about reservations. Most of the discussion was concentrated on OBCs, (27% reservation) quota implementation and the role of merit - at graduate and post graduate level.

But, What about the reservations in public sector, in legislative bodies, in parliament ?

If the reservations are completely scrapped, will we continue with reservations in our legislative bodies ? Will it mean that there wont be any reservation for SC and ST seats as well? Will it mean that the women reservation bill will be never passed in parliament ?

If the OBC reservations are implemented, when will the women reservation bill be passed? If the percentage of reserved seats is decided on the basis of the percentage of that particular category among the total population, then why is the proposed reservations for women not 48.6 % ( 2001 census) ? What is the basis for deciding it as 33% ? and why are most of the politicians not willing to give away more than 10 - 15 % of the seats?

If OBC reservation is in education sector, will it be extended to legislative bodies? After bringing the students from a historically backward class onto a same platform as the creamy layer ( the reasoning behind reservations) , what is the government doing to ensure that they get jobs - private sector reservations??

More gyan on women reservation bill :

The aim of this bill is to ensure that there is more women participation in the politics which will lead to women empowerement and also a greater say in the issues related to them. 33 % women reservation has been implemented at the panchayat level and several surveys has proved that the increased participation of women at this lowest level of decision making is showing good results. This bill has been introduced in the parliament several times but never got the required support- most of the poltical parties didnt want the reservations to be more than 15 %.

The current UPA government with Sonia Gandhi at the helm, has come out with two options
- implementing 33% reservation for women
- increasing the current seats in parliament by 33% and then implementing the reservations

The same points are being debated upon in the case of reservations in higher education. The second option seems fine in both the cases. In politics, the increasing population justifies the increase in number of seats and it wouldnt be difficult to revamp the parliament to fit in the increased intake. But in case of higher education, though the increase in seats is justifiable because of increasing population, the functioning is dependent on external factors called ' teaching faculty' . As long as teachers are paid less salaries and are not provided conducive research environemt, this problem cannot be overcome( irrespective of the population increase). It is not the quantity which is the problem , but the quantity which meets the required quality, which is lacking- which again leads to the problem of lack of quality education at grass root levels.