Hyderabad: Where do students in the general category go when there is 60 per cent reservation?
The situation for those in the general category is appalling; they may score high marks in competitive examinations and still not get admission in good institutes or jobs due to the ever expanding number of reserved seats.
Vijay Mitra, founder and chief executive officer of a renowned company working with students, said, “Reservation is a destructive move for a growing nation.”
Only 40 per cent of seats/jobs will be left for the general category and that will lead to further stress for students, he said.
“Reservation is a quick and dirty patchwork to a deep problem which exists in society. Instead, steps need to be taken to strengthen education, create a greater knowledge base and jobs which will make the economy grow," Mr Mitra advised.
There are 17 million new entrants into the workforce every year in India but only 5.5 million jobs are created every year. The gap between demand and supply of jobs is increasing. Job markets are changing with the advent of technology and artificial intelligence-based systems which are going unfilled.
Mr Arun Kumar, who deals with compensation and benefits to employees in the corporate sector, said, “Reservation has become a white elephant and become more disruptive, impacting the very people whom it wants to help. It has been found that the rich and educated falling under reservation category utilise the opportunity and get admission into colleges based on reservation. This is depriving the actual talent pool of hard working students who are not able to get admission to pursue higher studies. They are opting for jobs abroad and settling down there.”
The brain drain from India is going to continue according to experts as enough jobs of the kind that are required are not being created.
A senior JNTU professor who did not want to be named, said, “Caste based reservation was supposed to be only for the short term but it has been politicised by successive governments and has become a burden. The impact is already being felt in educational institutions as the output or skill is not as required. The workforce does not have the right skills, talent and ability to take the pressure or to work hard because the spirit of competition has been killed. This will further dwindle and that will be a major setback not only for the industry but also institutions.”
