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Indian girls don't need the reservation ladder to climb IIT steps

  • A committee for the IITs has recommended 20% reservation for female students
  • A study showed that the number qualifying to the IITs has dipped to 8% in 2016 as compared to about 10% in 2015
  • What will be the difference between women and the quotas for SC/OBC?
Indian Women dont need reservation to study in the IITs is this equality

 

A report in the Hindustan Times stated that “a committee formed to increase the enrollment of girl students to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has recommended reservation for female students to rectify the problem”. This would help to create extra seats for women who have qualified the JEE-Advanced exam. A study showed that the number qualifying to the IITs dipped to 8% in 2016 as compared to about 10% in 2015.

 

Problem : Lesser number of female applicants to the IITs

Solution: Reserve some seats for them

 

Indians love the reservation system. From buses, to trains and now to premier educational institutions like IITs, reservation for women will soon come to a full circle. Policymakers you should be proud of your suggestions – you have killed two birds with one stone. One of solving your enrolment problem and the other of proclaiming to do something for the Indian girls.

 

The article also stated that the committee has suggested creating up to 20% supernumerary seats for female students out of the total number of seats. However, the reservation will be in effect for a period of eight years or till the time the enrolment reaches the 20% mark.

 

This, dear sirs, is your way out for a problem whose origin lies elsewhere.

 

May I remind you of another reservation for women which is still pending. The Women's Reservation Bill or The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008 - a lapsed bill in the Parliament of India which proposed to amend the Constitution of India to reserve 33% of all seats in the Lower house of Parliament of India, the Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies for women. Our Parliamentarians could not come to a consensus on this, sadly.

 

Reservation for women

 

Maybe the committee had their heart in the right place when thinking about encouraging the enrolment of women in these educational institutions, but surely is it not more logical to focus on why women are not able to find a place in the IITs. By providing them reservation (however limited) you are robbing them of their dignity and the trust in their capabilities.

 

Tomorrow, if this suggestion is enforced, then you will find people taunting such women for having secured their seats not through hard work but on quota basis. The same kind of ridicule we heap on a member of the SC/OBC/BC classes despite the fact that they might have worked hard and earned their seat in a college or a national institution.

 

Take up any high school or college or entrance exam results, one can see how women show better results in every field, even their enrolment ratio is higher throughout the country but where the ball drops is in the equally high dropout ratio.

 

reservation for girls in IITs

 

Why is there this drop out ratio? Are girls not willing to study any further or are other forces forcing them not to study further? Address this problem, incentivise  women’s education and then see the results. If one were to observe then mostly poor financial condition, lack of access to these exams and institutions (rural and urban) is what is pulling them down. Offer money to such families and see how they will be encouraged to send their daughters to school, college and the IITs.

 

Are you saying that this 20% quota is how women can excel in the IITs? Wherever there is quota there is inequality. And inequality is what women are fighting against. Not to mention evils of corruption and underhand dealings will also rear their heads. Remember Ruby Rai from Bihar?

 

This suggestion, if implied goes against the idea of merit and would dilute the reason why the IITs exist; it is because of the meritorious students they get via IIT-JEE. Don’t do this in the name of women. Encourage women, if you must, but they do not expect sops like this to make it to an Institute of National Importance.

 

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