The hurdles ahead of the new quota policy

The rethinking in the Union Human Resource Development Ministry about implementing the 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections at one go from the coming academic session starting in April is perhaps prudent. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had announced that the government would increase the number of seats in higher educational institutions by 25 per cent in order to implement the new quota. But officials in the ministry now seem to have realised that it may not be possible to increase the seats by such a huge number immediately and have rightly decided to implement it in stages.

When the 27 per cent OBC quota too was implemented in 2006, higher educational institutions took about three to four years to fully put it in practice. There are several issues that need to be tackled before the new quota can be rolled out. 

The first is to create the extra seats. According to experts, an estimated 10 lakh seats will have to be added across the country to implement the new quota in 40,000 colleges and about 900 universities. The second is to have enough teachers to cater to the extra students in campuses. Lastly, all the educational institutions will need a huge dose of funds to create the added infrastructure and library facilities, and for payment of salaries to the faculty. While the Centre is open to providing the funds to central educational institutions, it is as yet unclear how private universities, which too will have to implement the 10 per cent quota, will manage the financial resources. Given these challenges, it is better not to rush into implementing the reservation policy.

It also remains to be seen how state governments implement the new quota. While Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, all BJP-ruled states, have announced they will implement the 10 per cent quota in jobs and educational institutions, no other state government appears to have taken steps towards it. Perhaps there is politics in this too.