On Meritocracy & Reservation for Dalits in IITs,
Every second day, I am reading with dismay, one article or the other on how miserable students who get admitted to IITs through Reservations for SC/ST and Backward Classes are and how many are contemplating suicides or have committed suicides. All these are archived in my blog on Suicides in IITs meticulously. Click Here to see "IIT Suicides Blog"
I started this two years ago as you can see below but got distracted
IMPROVING EDUCATION IN INDIA NATION WIDE
At age 72, I have this "Immense Desire to Give Back to Society, Any Which Way I can before I Bite the Dust", yet confronted by the Daunting Question "What can One Man do to Change the World and How ? " Bob Dylan's Song "The Answer My Friend is Blowing in the Wind" made waves and came the Realisation " That the Pen is Mightier than the Sword " Hence this Blog. Whether I Succeed or Not, I want People who do get to Read this Blog "TO REMEMBER I TRIED" Ram Krishnaswamy, Sydney, Australia.
My Thoughts two years ago CLICK HERE
Chapter 1- INTRODUCTION
A Bit of History:(From WiKi) The concept of IIT was first introduced by Sh. N.M.Sircar, then member of Education on Viceroy's executive council. Following his recommendations, the first Indian Institute of Technology was established in the year 1950 in Kharagpur. In his report, Shri Sircar had suggested that such Institutes should also be started in different parts of the country.
The Government having accepted these recommendations of the Sircar Committee decided to establish more Institutes of Technology with the assistance of friendly countries who were prepared to help.
The first offer of help came from USSR who agreed to collaborate in the establishment of an Institute through UNESCO at Bombay.
This was followed by the Institutes of Technology at Madras, Kanpur and Delhi with collaborations with West Germany, United States and UK respectively.
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati was established in 1994 and the University of Roorkee was converted into an IIT in 2001.
About me:
So you know where I am coming from.
I was Born in Port Blair Andamans, to a Public Servant in Dec 1946, soon after he Japanese had surrendered and left the Islands and just before India got its Independence in 1947. Quality education was most important to my Parents and so they sent me and my six sisters to Catholic schools in Madras. My Dad always said I have zero assets to share with you kids and am giving you good education so each one of you can stand on your own feet when you become adults. We kids did not let our parents down. We were all good at studies and we have a Prof Of Zoology, three Medical Doctors and an Architect and me the only Engineer. Two of my sisters are Gold Medalists too...
Does this scream of Meritocracy ????
NO WAY.
My family on my father's side in Madras were all uneducated and belonged to a Backward Caste, whose main occupation was climbing coconut trees and cutting coconuts for some meagre payment.
In 1964, I got into IIT on my own merit and not using Reservation as it did not exist in IITs then and was given a merit come means scholarship of Rs75 per month as my Dad was retired by then and could not have afforded to pay even mess bills each month which was almost a third of his monthly pension of meagre Rs 300/month.
The Night before the exams I watched an evening show at the Cinemas (No TV then). The movie was Cleopatra, meaning I was not cramming before the exams and we did not have any coaching school then.
Guess what there was no such thing as an IIT Coaching school then in Madras and No one knew where Kota even was. We went to these exams and answered questions on what we learnt at school and Pre university
Chapter 2 - GLORY OF ORIGINAL 5 IIT'S
There were so many great aspects of life on Campus at IIT Madras during my time. Let me list a few. Sadly most have vanished now. ( My comments are only about IITM and not all IIt's as I don't know about them)
1 - We had an awesome Campus to start with all state of the art buildings and a workshop with best machinery from Germany. I was over the moon as in our first year we had one week classes and the next week full workshops. This to me was hands on Engineering that I had imagined and dreamt of. We had Carpentry, Machine shop, Smithy and Electrical workshop training. This to me was THE best aspect of IIT Madras education
Today IITM have abandoned the Workshops built by the West Germans, killing of true hands on engineering. Sad. I have come across a M Tech in Industrial Engineering who did not know how to change a flat tyre. His argument was that his driver did that not him.
2 - There were a dozen hostels to accommodate about 200 students each, three storeys high, two wings separated by a quadrangle and at one end of the quadrangle was the common room flanked by accommodation for asst wardens. At the other end was the Mess, Veg and Non veg on opposite ends of the hall, with independent kitchens attached.
Today None of the hostels have a mess to cook and serve food. There is One "Mega Mess" called Himalayas that serves cow fodder according to recent graduates who have migrated to OZ, who say they are eating out most of the times or having food delivered from outside the campus
3 - The most important aspect of IIT was the emphasis on National Integration. I thoroughly enjoyed this as I was a Hindi speaking Kalapani whose Mother tongue was Telugu and could read write and speak Tamil like a Tamilian. Born and brought up with hindi speaking north Indians I was like a fish out of water in Madras until I joined IIT Madras
Today most students at IITM are from South India I am Told. Idea of National Integration got killed too in the process.
4 - Every year all of us went to a different hostel and made new friends with seniors and juniors and this interaction taught us how to live amicably with all kinds of personalities from all over India
Today, a fresh IIT student is allocated a room in a hostel, mostly shared room with another student and this is for the term of his life on Campus. How treacherous is this. To me this would be like being locked up with another criminal at Alcatraz Jail from where there is no escape
Hostels during my time were maintained in pristine condition and one year I was elected the garden secretary and all 200 inmates were proud of how the beautiful and colourful the quadrangle looked with flowers
Today an IIT Hostel looks like a detention centre, or like a migrant workers accommodation in Singapore with dirty washings mostly underwear and lungis hanging outside each and every room in every corridor. Sad to see such atrocious standards of Campus life
5 - Students who entered IITs during my period were generally above average students from each and every state. Each one got in on his own merit. On Campus we realised that those who came from Central Govt schools had the advantage of a much better school curriculum as compared to State schools from Madras. For example we were not taught Calculus at school but boys from up north had studied differential and integral calculus placing us at a disadvantage. Most of us from State schools were poor and imagine not being able to buy one text book during the entire 5 year degree course.
Today majority of IIT students come after spending a few years at the Kota Coaching schools, having spent the families hard earned money and more than anything not Fresh for education but already burnt out. Even more saddening situation.
Currently we have a situation in India with Farmers Protesting new Laws which aims to wipe out the "middle men" raking in most of the Govt subsidies when the farmers are going broke and commiting suicides. In MY Honest Opinion, these IIT Coaching schools mostly located in Kota are the worst kind of middlemen, destroying formal educations at schools and virtually making High school education irrelevant. It is common knowledge that one of the HRD Ministers and many IIT Directors in the past (don't know about present) had links to Kota Coaching schools. Will Sanity prevail and Coaching schools be banned in India. Don't think so as education in India is a Money Cow that is being milked dry
6 - Having studied at an English medium school, I was better off compared to some very brilliant classmates who came from Tamil, Telugu and Hindi medium schools from Rural India. I always think of DLN Sastry who struggled the first two years as he was not good at English but he topped his class in Aeronautics when he completed his degree.
Today I am told IIT Entrance exams can be taken in a few languages. You pass, enter IIT and your are hit with every subject being lectured in English. To students from non english medium schools it is like being taught in Chinese, not being able to understand anything. and we wonder why IIT students are stressed and commit suicides. Some cursory English classe are said to be on offer but do not have latest details on what help is being offered to students from non English medium schools
In 2021 we have 23 IITs like Pan Beedi shops in every street corner. Even Top five established IITs could never find good quality faculty so imagine the quality of faculty at the new IITs. I also do not believe that all PhDs make good Teachers. Yes it is OK as a Minimum qualification but what is needed is a "Train the Trainer to Teach".
When a brilliant student enters a campus and faces lecturers and professors of very low Caliber it is natural for students to get disillusioned and lose interest in education and become a passenger in a third class train relieved to reach the destination and eager to jump off the train.
One alumnus who was coached at Kota said that the Teachers at Kota were 100 times better than faculty at IIT. This is understandable as some Teachers at Kota earn as much as Rs 1 Crore per annum, probably more than the PM of India
Agree the hype to get into IITs is a National Obsession these days and the demand is huge, with 2 million students taking this exam for 16000 seats in 2021.
After the Covid Pandemic Globalisation is half dead and so is employment. Going to a University in USA now may be a pipe dream. Who is going to help all these new Graduates we are churning out from IITs ?. As for regional engineering colleges I have come across Engineers working as Tourist Van Drivers in India.
IITs enjoyed total autonomy until the beginning of this century. IITs are autonomous only on paper in 2021. My guess is Directors are being appointed by HRD Ministry, appointing people who toe the political line. This started when Murali Manohar Joshi was HRD in 2002. Reservation in IITs were introduced by Charan Singh a disgruntled Congressman who wanted to be PM of India but was made HRD Minister instead.Followed by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal who had vested interest in Coaching schools and changed the exam format that was the key ingredient for success of IITs in picking the best students
In 50 years when IIT's celebrated the Golden Jubilees, IITs were a Global phenomenon as IIT alumni had reached top positions Globally in MNC's Like IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard etc etc.
Every chef will tell you that to create an amazing dish you need the best produce & ingredients. Ingredient for IITs success was nothing other than "A Class Students and Successful alumni".
As for faculty at IIT, I'd say 30% were amazing teachers other 30% were average and the last 30% were Public servants hanging on to a job with no real skills or knowledge to impart.
In my Opinion IIT Faculty members are Public servants and as such no faculty member should remain on one Campus too long. Now that we have 23 IITs if faculty are transferred around every three years. It would enhance the overall teaching standards. Accommodation for faculty on Campus is a given. all that needs to be guaranteed is a good school on campus for children of faculty members. "Rolling stones gather no moss".
I was one of 50,000 who took the entrance exam in 1963. Today I believe 2 Million students will take the IIT Entrance exam in 2021 to vie for about 16000 seats. Of these 15% are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes and their cut of points are lower that that for students from the general category
As some one coming from a Backward caste or Backward class, I am opposed to the Claims of Meritocracy and I am also opposed to Reservations in IITs.
Meritocracy claimed by privileged Students born to well off Parents often Professional Doctors or Engineers living in Metros in gated communities attending the best schools and being gifted iPads at age 3 and also who attend Kota Coaching schools paying lakhs and lakhs and virtually preparing for IITs for 8th standard is not Merit in the True sense. Scoring well at an Entrance exam having studied for just this for 4 years is more about regurgitating at exams.
Five years on Campus I have seen so many nerds sitting in the first row in every class and cramming class notes and befriending faculty members to score top marks. Most of these chaps failed as professionals in real life and the slackos who were clever but did not bother about lectures, sat in the last row or cut classes they did not like and even failed, have had amazing careers. Today some of these chaps own Private jets and are very successful entrepreneurs. Sundar Pichay admits he cut class to spend time with his then GF and now wife and imagine a Metallurgy Engineer heading Google. He did not study Computer Science at IIT Kgp did he
Only in India if you ask someone who is the top man in a region, 9 out of 10 will mention the richest man in the area. Success in India is determined by how rich you are. The same with kids those who score very high marks are considered the smartest. These are not true indicators of success.
Now take a Poor kid from a Dalit family in any part of India. His father could be a daily wage earner and struggling to feed the children. They attend govt run schools which are of extremely poor standard. How does a Poor Boy from this kind of Background compete with well off kids from metros. This my friends is the real Issue at stake. Now forget that this Poor Kid is a Dalit. He could be a very very poor Brahmin Boy too.
So my Friends the One and only Criteria for any form of Reservation in IITs in my Opinion is the per capita income of the kids family
Not Merit not Caste but the poor environment in which kids grow up needs to be considered. Dalit kids have just one thing to hang on to God Given IQ and HOPE. No one will understand this more that PM Modi himself as he worked as a kid in a Tea Shop. Had his parents been well off he too would have gone to the best school and become a Professional
Reservation of seats for SC and ST at IITs, to me is a Curse. It helps no body.
The adage is "Don't Feed the poor Fish but teach them how to Fish"
or better way to explain to Indians is "Imagine 20% reservation in the INDIAN Cricket Team" Does it make sense. Many will argue that this is the case with South Africa, and we now know why South Africa as a Cricket team is down in the dumps
The real curse in 2021 is the Kota Coaching schools. IIT entrance exam papers are set by IIT Faculty members and then this gets printed. During this process imagine the number of people who have seen the question papers and had access to copies. Big money can be made selling these question papers to coaching schools who coach the kids on the exact questions and them boast that their school was the best and got X Y Z number of seats in the entrance exams.
IITs need to scrap the current system of examination as it is outdated and worn out and IITs have to scrap Reservation. Instead of reservations we need only one criteria. MEANS. Assist students from Poor families after a means test for per capita income with scholarships not reservation based on Caste, Creed or Religion. We humans have to learn from animals who do not discriminate based on colour or breed or creed
India's Curse is the Caste system and untouchability. If we willed it we can make constitutional amendments to ban religion and caste from all Govt bodies and application forms etc. Treat all Indians Citizens equally and assist the downtrodden be he a Brahmin or a Dalit. All are children of God. I am not saying ban religion and caste but keep it out of Governance. Religion and Faith people are born into and shoulkd stay with people within the four walls of their homes. Once out in the Open every Indian should be equal with equal rights and no one should be above the law. Sadly law and order in India is to be applied to the poor not the rich and powerful people
If I was HRD Minister I will scrap the IIT entrance exam in its current format totally and introduce a different form of exam that tests knowledge of subjects as well as IQ and General knowledge. (I will come to this later)
Many seniors tell me that the current crop of IIT Graduates are a mere shadow of the ones in the last century and not employable. Most of them cannot even answer questions at interviews. I am not generalising as I am sure we have many many Einsteins and Alwa Edisons amongst them. But the overall standard is way below expectations according to employers. How did this happen and why ?
My Friend who is an army general retired has expressed his views on this topic and that makes me ask this question: Why is there no reservation in the Armed Forces of India ?
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I paused here and shared the draft with all my IIT Alumni Contacts and received the following responses
You have done a thorough job of tracing the history of IIT. When we joined IIT, India’s population was about 500 million. We are 3 times that now. The entire system will have to be reevaluated
Nacha
Rambo, I think you are factually wrong when you say we had one week of class followed by one week of workshop. We had workshop one or two days a week when we were required to wear khaki uniform.
You are being too critical about the number of IITs today. In the 55 years since we joined IIT, the population has also increased multifold. So we definitely needed more IITs. How many is a matter of judgment taking future needs also into account.
You ask can we have reservations in the cricket team. Well, we had an informal zone-wise auto earlier. South Africa had and perhaps still has a rule that the test team must contain at least 2 blacks and 6 non-whites (Asian, mixed race and black).
Affirmative action in the form of preferential treatment for the disadvantaged sections of the population exists in many countries including the USA.
S.Mohan
I am all for reservations.
If you back a few centuries we had reservations even then but in the those days it was for the Brahmins and some rich folk. These upper castes are now all doing well.
During that period the country made sacrifices as it was not always the best and most intelligent who were allowed to study.
We will need another half century of reservations to bring up the current crop of underprivileged. Till then the country has to make a few sacrifices.
The South African cricket team has reservations for black people. It means the team has to make some sacrifices but in the long run the black community will develop and produce good players.
Monu Abraham
We need you to lead the movement to banish the atrocious caste system which is being strengthened every day by criticizing meritocracy. My experience of entering IIT was worse than yours in terms of backwardness. From a rural background with Kannada medium, no access to library, father completing sixth grade and the same thing with mother, one elder brother completing engineering was one advantage. I thought of leaving IIT because I could not speak English.
Well what you write makes a lot of sense. If possible browse a web site for Shanthi Bhavan which admits only Dalits or backward class students and gives them world class education. Many of them are now doing exceedingly well - no quota or reservation.
Bhamy Shenoy
It's great. But you must mention that you have a serious plan for how you will create a funnel for genuine engineers to start coming to IIT again. Simply scrapping a failed system is a sure fire recipe for even bigger crooks to destroy the dough and the oven along with it. As you mention, that arch criminal Murli Manohar Joshi struck the first major blow, without having a clue on how to fix what was actually broken. Another Manohar Joshi, cut from similar cloth, who became CM in Maharashtra, actually ran third rate coaching classes himself. This is the challenge.
Vickram Crishna
Hi, I did read thru the article and am in agreement with you that opportunity & self motivation with basic intellect are all that is needed to excel in any field. Main element is the desire to achieve and the drive to go to make all effort to reach the goal. One is NOT born intelligent or stupid, these skills have to be cultivated / developed.
Also agree that feeding fish to the needy is WRONG - they get used to these 'freebies' and tend to lay back knowing that all their needs will BE taken care of by the more fortunate hard working public. One HAS to be taught to fish so that he can make a living for himself. Any concession / reservation for whatever reason should be strictly time bound to max ONE generation of the deprived classes and NOT a BIRTHRIGHT!
Am sure that even the powers that be are aware of these issues BUT the need for votes is the motivation for the politicos to pamper the 'minorities' like Muslims, Xtians, lower castes - as a means to BUY their votes.
That way I think, Modi is aware of this and is NOT making any special effort to pamper these 'minorities' and is trying to ensure a Uniform Civil Code as a National policy - NOT base on one's religion, caste or creed. All schemes can and do benefit all the relevant segments based on minimum criteria for eligibility AND with bounds to exclude the better or well off from such benefits.
This is my perception of reservation, meritocracy & means to achieve the best for the nation!
Surprised that I could shoot of such a long response - wanted it to be a short acceptance of your motion. 😮🤔😀😁☺️🙏
Vichu
Read through your article draft. Couple of observations from me.
1. You have covered a lot of ground and spanning the last 60 years.
2. I don't believe we have the detailed knowledge or the band width to really contribute to current policy or decision-making.
3. In that sense, we are dinasours in this whole game, much as we may want to play.
4. Sorry to say, we of our vintage, are obselete and irrelevant.
4. Meritocracy and Reservations are BOTH double-edged swords. Plenty of pros and cons on both sides and themes. I don't need to go into details.
Sashidar Rao
You sent me back to my IIT days and I was day dreaming about those wonderful days and times which will never come back in our lives.
Coming back to your article, very well written, but what happens is when "in our retired life", we want some changes to be made, and your suggestion is pretty big in nature, although a good one, will be very difficult to implement, as I feel at our age implementation of a new system will be next to impossible. In case you know someone important in the Ministry of Education, and your article can convince him to some extent, there is a ray of hope towards making these worthwhile changes.
Prasun das
Please correct your draft regarding reservation for OBC introduced by government which did not exist at our times
All reserved category students also had to secure marks within 5% of the last candidate admitted in the year. There was no blanket reservations at our times. Some of the students admitted now score 0 in the entrance exam. They spoil seats as they fail repeatedly and are sacked in due course.
Harwant Singh
I agree with you for the most part. My question is how do you give a Dalit kid a hand up and not a handout? If that kid is unable to enter an elite school, he is condemned to attend mediocre Corporation type public schools, if he is even able to go to school and not drop out because he has to work to support the family.
Also, I’ve met a lot of fellows who didn’t go to IIT outshine the ones that did!
Philosophically, why are some kids born as a Dalit, and others as kings?
Innate intelligence knows no caste, nor creed. However, opportunity and circumstance are potentially changeable. Even there, luck plays a role in being at the right place at the right time. Those are not controllable.
I’ll write more as I think about it.
Raju Jairam
Thanks. I have today read your entire article. Very well written. In our days, 1966 to 71, we had excellent teachers, at least 70 to 75% of them. Though I believe in meritocracy, I believe every human being should be given an opportunity to avail of the best educational facilities.
Niranjan Bhat
My view on the subject.
The reservation in India is a good step; but it's implementation is not correct.
Firstly education system in India is mixed ie Govt & Private. Whereas the best way would have been to have compulsory basic education for everyone in Govt school only; like in UK where no one has any complex while studying.
If required rich people may get additional benifit by imparting extra tution/coaching to their wards
It is possible as our Government is already providing free primary education to all children & for girls upto 12th std.
After the basic education , opportunity be given to individuals for higher education & jobs depending upon their aptitude. Thus, without disturbing the masses; the Rich people may also have chance to improve their wards std, by providing extra tution/ coaching to them.
The reservation should be implemented in higher studies & jobs only by fixing minimum standards required for the same.
