Reservations based on a Deprivation Certificate and a Deprivation Score
One of the comments on this post is the basis of this post.
Since the announcement of reservations for OBCs by the HRD ministry in last May, we have seen lot of ideas/discussions from either side of the reservation debate. Out of all this I have been trying to think how and if can caste be removed from the forefront of all this.
What constitutes on OBC has always been at the core of the discussion in most cases. Hopping around the blogosphere I have come across some of these questions.
- Who is an OBC?
- Why is such and such caste an OBC?
- How can such and such caste and the other caste be lumped together? That is equal treatment of unequals.
- How come a rich OBC’s son deserves reservation compared to a poor upper caste kid?
- What about reservations for women?
- What about reservations for Muslims? Or religious minorities?
And there are many more.
At this point I would liked to throw in the idea of a deprivation certificate and deprivation score as the basis of providing reservations.
Deprivation Certificate(DC) would be a certificate with the certificate holder’s identification and a deprivation score. Here are some key points.
- Everybody(no matter what caste, creed, sex, race or religion ) is required to obtain a DC from the govt. very much like a birth certificate.
- A DC would be a required document for admission to educational institutes and jobs.
- The Score will be calculated based on many different criteria. I will throw in a few, feel free to add/remove more
- Caste
- Family History
- Gender
- Economic Status
- Geographical region
- Religion
- The Score will be valid for a period of say 5 years and after that it must be re-calculated. This is necessary because the score depends on factors that are not constant.
- Every criterion would carry a certain weight. How much? I guess that is the tough question that would have to be answered. But the thing is that the weight can also be revised over a period of time. For example, caste could carry more weight than economic status. Or even one caste could have more weight than the other.
Reservations based on DC and the score would fill the non reserved seats from everybody based on the merit and the reserved seat would be filled based on the score and merit. In the case of two candidates with same marks and different deprivation scores, the candidate with higher deprivation score would get the seat.
Benefits
The biggest benefit of this, in my view, would be the elimination of the caste and its name from the fore front. Yes the caste will still be a factor but just by looking at the score one cannot make out whether the score is of a lower caste person or a person with a poor background or a religious minority or what not. A poor brahmin and a well to do OBC could end up having the same score.
It addresses the creamy layer issue as well.
Another benefit would be that it is an all inclusive framework that would take care of women, religious minorities and every other inequalities that we could think of.
It allows for grading different criteria by allocating weights to each.
In this scheme of things an individual can be evaluated on his/her own merit and the biggest thing is everybody by applying for the DC and the D-Score will essentially have to prove that he or she is deprived and the score will reflect that. The re-evaluation of score leave room for people to move out of the benefit net.
May 14, 2007
· 
Ajit · 
11 Comments
Posted in: Caste, Quota Reservations, Reservations
Bloggers from COEP
I am trying to put a list of bloggers from COEP (College Of Engineering, Pune). So far I have found these but if you know of more please do let me know and I will update the post.
Polite Indian
Funny Indian
666
crossStyx
Faithology
Avanti Ketkar
bvhks lair
page 4
The lotus elise
Vantage Point
Expressions
Project Aasara
Personality in Multiple Disorders
Nish-O-Nash
Ruminations
oF the top of my mind…
Rajeev Gadgil
Learn English
Chatterati
Bending The Curve ….
Silicon Valley Diary
Quatrainman
Online Chess blog
Nirvana
Ayn Rand..Shakespeare…Jane Austen…Rudyard Kipling…me
Renée
Rising Sun
Uday’s Website
TiMe To GaThEr SoMe ThOuGhTs!!!
May 3, 2007
· Ajit · One Comment
Posted in: COEP
Manager and Secretary
Found this here
Recently, a large corporation hired several cannibals to increase their diversity.
“You are all part of our team now,” said the Human Resources rep during the welcoming briefing. “You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don’t eat any employees.”
The cannibals promised they would not.
Four weeks later their boss remarked, “You’re all working very hard and I’m satisfied with your work. We have noticed a marked increase in the whole company’s performance. However, one of our secretaries has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?”
The cannibals all shook their heads, “No.”
After the boss had left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, “Which one of you idiots ate the secretary?” A hand rose hesitantly.
“You fool!” the leader continued. “For four weeks we’ve been eating managers and no one noticed anything. But NOOOooo, you had to go and eat someone who actually does something.”
May 2, 2007
· Ajit · 2 Comments
Posted in: Funny Stuff, Humor, Humour, Jokes, Jokes and Humor
OBC Reservations – Supreme Court Verdict
The Supreme court has stayed the implementation of the OBC reservation in its current form.
The Court ruled that the 1931 census could not be a determinative factor for identifying the OBCs for the purpose of providing reservation.
I personally see this as being a good thing in the light of the recent developments. This means that govt will have to first do a study to identify the OBCs and then come up with a proposal. Such a thing is absolutely necessary for a program of this magnitude. As in the past the legislature could have legislated against such a decision and put it in the ninth schedule. But the supreme court recently ruled that anything placed in the ninth schedule is also subject to review.
Difference between reservations for SC/ST and OBCs.
This verdict does not mean that reservations of any kind should be stopped. However there is a huge difference between the reservations for SC/ST and the OBCs. The SC/STs are provided reservation because they have suffered for being SC/ST. Hence they are provided reservations based on the single criteria that they are SC/ST. No other criteria is needed because that one criteria is sufficient. Having said that I believe that even that program can be improved. This program, for all its shortcomings, has worked for SC/STs. It has had its success.
For the OBCs, the reservations are based on the fact that they are socially and educationally backward. If someone needs to get benefited by this program, he needs to be identified and proven that he is backward. For that one needs to collect data. As realitycheck has always pointed out that one needs to identify the beneficiaries in order for a program of this scale to succeed. The Supreme court has basically said the same thing about the data that was collected in 1931. The supreme court has not said NO to reservations. It has asked the govt to prove that the people who will benefit from this are really OBCs. Once the govt. gets into the exercise of identifying the OBCs there will be lot of political repercussions to these. That should be interesting to watch in the coming days.
Verdict like these and proper dealing of the issue of creamy layer would go a long way to ensure that the beneficiaries of this program are the ones that really need it.
cross posted at the Great Indian Mutiny
March 30, 2007
· Ajit · 22 Comments
Posted in: Quota Reservations, Reservations
UN Body Slams India On Dalit Violence and rightly so!
When Manmohan singh equated untouchability to apartheid, I felt good that someone at the top is finally calling a spade a spade. I felt that international pressure be put on India to take some concrete steps to improve the conditions of Dalits. As Nitin pointed out in the comments section that sanctions against India might not be the right thing for it, I wonder what else can be done. For years, Dalit activists have tried to equate the plight of dalits to that of racism and the Indian delegates have always defended arguing caste is not same as race.
Now when CERD slams Indian on dalit violence, I take it as a good sign.
A UN committee has equated violence against Dalits in India with racial discrimination and questioned the country’s record on treatment of the socially marginalised.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has called upon the Indian government to ensure an immediate end to the violence on Dalits
The report further confirms that systematic segregations of Dalits very much exists. This is nothing new to us but when a UN body accepts it, it is a big achievement for the activists.
The report also mentioned “the Indian delegation’s arrogant rejection of well-documented abuses against Dalits before UN experts in Geneva” and added that it “mirrors India’s systematic denial of Dalit rights at home”,
What was the Indian delegation trying to say by rejecting the abuse cases? Prove that Dalit attrocities don’t happen? Even in the light of events like Khairllanji, these guys have the audacity to refute it? Not only that, as usual they tried to deflect things by getting into a semantic debate between race and caste.
The report said the Indian delegation resorted to a semantic debate on the difference between caste and race.
I understand that untouchability is not an official state policy, but I hold the state equally responsible because it is an unofficial state policy and that is even worse. The police doesn’t file complaints, the media doesn’t give them proper attention, the politician just consider them as vote banks, the NGOs can do only so much and the elite doesn’t understand what social justice is all about.
I still think that International pressure when put on India, only then will the state really act. Till then it is difficult to wake this giant from slumber.
March 27, 2007
· Ajit · 2 Comments
Posted in: Aparthied, dalit
Corporal Punishment – Why is it needed at all?
I have always wondered why is it necessary to award corporal punishment to school kids? So far I haven’t found an answer. This particular incident once again got me thinking.
Ujjwala Andrews, a teacher in city’s Vinay High School, will serve one year of simple imprisonment for causing the grievous injury to Munir Patel 11 years ago.
Patel’s fault was that he was “troubling his teachers”.
After being hit on head with a wooden scale, the boy began to get seizures and was hospitalised for serious head injury.
This has taken 11 years out of Munir’s life and he had to drop out from school.
Patel, now 27, dropped out of school after the incident and works in a shop now.
He said Andrews deserved “stringent punishment”. “The beating I received at her hands has changed the course of my life. She has got away with a lighter sentence. You tell me how would you have felt if this happened with you?” he was quoted as saying by PTI.
Can you imagine someone’s life being changed in such a way? Munir’s example is one such case but there are so many cases where kids get affected in many different ways after receiving corporal punishments. Some have long lasting psychological impacts. Some just lose interest and some just drop out. Worst, some even commit suicide.
In India and many countries it is Okay to hit a school kids in order to discipline them. I think this needs to change. Corporal punishment should be banned in schools. There is really no need for it. It is heartening to see that some states have banned it. Delhi, Goa and TamilNadu are such states. Other states should follow suit. The teachers who lack the ability to teach, in my view, use such tactics to “discipline” children.
On the same lines I also think there is no need to hit a kid at home in order to discipline him.
update: Another teacher gets sentenced. This one paraded the kid naked for taking a dip in the school tank. I hope more parents and kids file complaints against such teachers. The only sad thing is that such cases are taking 10 years to adjucate. Why?
March 22, 2007
· Ajit · 21 Comments
Posted in: corporal punishment, school violence
What a weekend!!!
This has to be one of the most eventful weekend. It started with the snow and wintry mix weather on Friday and I decided to drive from New Jersey to Virginia. It was a brave (and stupid) effort to drive in that weather. Driving at 30 miles an hour it took me around 7 hours for a journey that I would usually complete in a little over 3 hours. Not only that I almost had two accidents on the way and say atleast 40 disable vehicles on the 200+ miles that I drove.
Saturday morning was ruined in the first few overs that India played. I should have stopped following the match but what can I say…Hope got the better of me and forced me to continue reading ball by ball commentary. But of no use. The inevitable happened. India Lost to Bangladesh. The entire saturday was ruined. The only good news was about Pakistan losing to Ireland and getting knocked off the world cup. The winhas given Bangladesh to mock at India. No matter what they think but India didn’t lose because Bangladesh played better but because India played a lousy game.
Sunday Morning was spent discussing different topics with my friend and when we were done he turned on the TV just to find out that Bob Woolmer was dead. This was indeed shocking. As if this was not enough Inzy decided to hang his boots for the one day matches.
I am going to bed now and hope that when I wake up it would be the start of a better week.
March 19, 2007
· Ajit · No Comments
Posted in: blogging
Nandigram – Shameful!
The recent events in Nandigram makes me hang my head in shame. I had seen scenes like this only in the freedom struggle movies but what I saw on TV was shocking to say the least. There was an open war between the farmers at Nandigram and the police. The police and the farmers were pelting stones at each other and when two women came to carry the dead body of a farmer, they were brutally assaulted and they couldn’t carry the dead body.
This comes closely on the heels of the Singur controversy.
What is going on in Bengal? The govt. that harps on being the govt for the poor is hell bent upon destroying those very poor farmers.
The decision to setup a SEZ in Nandigram became a thorny issue for the govt when the farmers refused to give their lands away. The govt then send 3000 troops to “restore the rule of law in Nandipur”
West Bengal DGP A B Vohra said they were told to ‘‘restore the rule of law’’ in Nandigram and had mobilised as many 3,000 policemen early this morning. But the policemen, he said, faced stiff resistance from a 5,000-strong mob — members of the Save Land Committee who were armed with guns, bombs and other weapons.
Vohra said six bodies had been recovered and the death toll could rise as reports were awaited from other areas. A late night PTI report put the toll at 11 killed while partners of the ruling Left Front said it could be between 10 and 13 while the Opposition Trinamool claimed 20 people had been killed.
Are we living in a free country? Is this what happens in a free country? The govt can decide to take anybody’s land and then of course as usual fail to pay the proper compensation. When the land owner’s protest then bring in 3000 troops to control them and to remind them of the rule of law.
Sounds like a plot from the pre-independence era. Shameful!!!
March 15, 2007
· Ajit · One Comment
Posted in: Nandigram, SEZ
Why Does The Govt. Always Fail To Pay Proper Compensation?
The Government Of India has a history of paying inadequate compensations to the residents if the land is to be acquired for development purposes. I wonder why? Is it because the govt doesn’t value people’s property? Or it because it doesn’t value people at all? In every case there is a lot involved and in some cases it is difficult to judge who is right or wrong but can you think of someone being paid a price as low as Rs 24 per sq. yard for a piece of land close to Delhi? The land that should be sold for 4-5 lacks per sq yard is being bought for Rs 24 per sq yard? Yes, the govt is paying the Nangal Dewat villagers that kind of money for the proposed airport.
At current market rates, the price of his land would be about Rs 4-5 lakh per square yard but the Government is offering him Rs 24 per square yard. It’s the price that was fixed in 1972, when the land was first acquired.
In 1972 the govt had agreed to buy the land from the villagers at Nanagal Dewat at Rs 24 per sq. yard. At that time that might have been a fair compensation but after 30 years now it seems inadequate. And the govt. wants to go ahead with the original plan. I think the compensation should be re-evaluated now and should be made at fair market price. The DDA in its zeal to seal the deal before the commonwealth games is not paying any attention to the courts order as well.
The villagers of Nangal Dewat even went to the High Court seeking proper rehabilitation and compensation. The court then issued a stay order but the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) took no note of the order.
DDA instead told the villagers to vacate the village in 24 hours or else they would lose whatever little compensation they were entitled to.
While I think it is OK for the govt. to acquire property in the name of development, It is imperative of the govt to pay adequate compensation and relocation for the affected. The general observation is that govt. has failed to do so. I wonder why?
I am sure there is more to it than meets the eye. Maybe the govt. has its own reasons to do such a seemingly unfair deal. Can someone point out the arguments for the govt? Can some one make a case that the govt is doing the right thing? I would be more than glad to learn the other side of the story to get the complete picture.
Till then I wonder why?
March 13, 2007
· Ajit · 4 Comments
Posted in: Government, India
God Goes To Court!
Recently an Avatar of Vishnu appeared in court and asked to be declared as god. But the courts turned him away.
“I am the supreme lord and the god of all religions. I am Jesus Christ, Lord Ram, Lord Krishna and even Gautam Buddha. Earlier, I was born as Alexander the great,” Dharmendra Mishra told the court.
Not only him but his entire family is divine he claims
“My wife Sarita is the reincarnation of Goddess Lakshmi and my son is Rajiv Gandhi reborn,” he said. He added that his father, a retired employee of Fiat, is the god of gods Lord Shiva. “My father has also been born on this earth as the Mughal emperor and as President of America Truman who had bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” he said.
The court turned him away claiming it was out of their jurisdiction to rule on this
What can I say? I am speechless 
Even God bows before the Court!!!
Maybe working at a call center gave him that idea. Hey he is solving people’s problem anyway then why not declare himself god!
March 10, 2007
· Ajit · 4 Comments
Posted in: God, Weird