College seats to increase so upper caste poor don’t shave off SC/ST/OBC quota

Weeks after adopting the controversial quota in government jobs and education for the upper caste poor, the BJP-led centre on Tuesday announced a 25% hike in seats across the nation’s higher educational institutions and universities, to implement the newly passed reservation. This has been done to ensure that the newly introduced reservation does not disturb the existing quota for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other categories.

Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar clarified this as he announced the 10% reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) of the general category, applicable in all higher education institutions (private and government) from the upcoming 2019 academic session.

The decision was taken at a meeting between officials of the HRD ministry, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).

What is the immediate plan of action?

“We had a meeting today (Tuesday) with the officials from the AICTE and UGC… The reservation based on economic status will be applicable from the 2019-20 academic session. Directions will be issued to the educational institutions to include the provision in their prospectus for this year. This quota will be implemented in the 40,000 colleges and about 900 universities in the country,” Javadekar said, addressing the press after the meeting with university bodies.

“The unreserved category is getting quota benefit for first time. If 100 seats are being offered today, they will be 125 from now on to ensure that the existing quota is not affected,” he further clarified at the press meet, adding that colleges will be given an operational mandate in a week’s time.

Also Read: What we are talking about when we talk about quota: A deep-dive into the history of caste-based quota system in India

The controversial bill

President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday approved the bill, after it passed in the Rajya Sabha by 165 votes. More than two-thirds majority of the upper house voted in its favour, while seven members voted against it. 

The bill had passed the Lok Sabha last week amidst great controversy for its focus on economic backwardness over social marginalisation, with 323 members voting in its favour and only three voting against it.

People from the general category who have an annual income under Rs. 8 lakh and own less than five acres of land will be eligible for benefits under the new amendment to the constitution.

The opposition claims that it is a “gimmick” aimed at profiting in the upcoming parliamentary polls.

How to deal with overlapping EWS schemes

While the Constitution provides for the quota law to be extended to private institutions, the law does not apply to private varsities, thus making the new law challenging to implement from this academic year. Not only is the design and framework of the quota unknown to varsities right now, but many of them already have social inclusion programmes in place.

“How we implement the quota will depend on the design of the quota which will be given to us, but in terms of class composition. Ashoka already has more than 10 per cent students from the EWS category,” Bhanu Pratap Mehta, vice-chancellor of Haryana-based Ashoka University, told NDTV.

Ahmedabad-based private university PDPU also has a quota reservation in place for SC/STs from the time of its inception 4 years ago, despite being a private university. “We are awaiting a formal notice to understand how the modalities of implementation will work,” registrar Tarun Shah told the news agency.

“We are committed to the objective of EWS inclusion, and have many social outreach programs active. How we implement additional intake will depend on the operational mandate that we will get, but we will abide by the law,” he added.

Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius

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