vyakta

This is a situation that you also might have come across when you were a kid. It might all look a bit too emotional. In any case I shall try to put it as neatly as I can.

I was studying in a small school in Kadirenahally, an area close to Padmanabha nagar. This was a govt. aided school. Every time when the new academic year begins, there used to distribution of free books, uniforms etc. to the backward class students. Even in my class there were several friends who beneficiaries of this scheme. And I always used to wonder “why don’t they give me? We are nowhere economically well off”. This is not just me; few of my other friends felt it too. I don’t want to put too many details of economic and educational conditions of my family here. My idea is not to emotionally hijack you, and I leave that trademark thinking/writing to our progressive friends.

Now the other side to the story. There were several beneficiaries who were economically not backward at all, about half of them. At times I visited their homes. And looking at their conditions I used to ask them “you are economically so well off, then why does the school give you free books etc.” The answer was very frank. “I don’t’ know, but it is given because of we are SC/ST/Backward caste. In fact, we can do away with these things; we don’t need them at all.” Thus were the situation and our thoughts when I was 3^rd – 7^th Standard. None of us knew what an SC/ST or a backward caste was, what politics was.

Fifteen years have past by, the situation remains the same. No, in fact the situation has worsened. Our politicians and progressives have reinforced the caste to such an extent that one wonders whether it is really possible to overcome the predicament we are headed to. Our progressive judges are also equally responsible. They have said, at times, that the economic criteria cannot be considered for reservations, which in turn used as a scale for awarding other benefits too, because there could two people in the same family who fall on the either side of the criteria. This would mean an anomaly as per them. They are ready to assume a hypothetical situation, but at times have failed to cross-check the ground reality. How can we change this ugly trend?

By the way, have you experienced anything similar?

# posted by ananda k s @ 12:11 AM