Page 16 - EducationWorld October 2020

Education News

on-campus classes and operations bers of the tradition-
have been enthusiastically welcomed ally militant Maratha
by students fed up with prolonged community went on a
homestay learning. “Most college state-wide rampage that
and university students are mature resulted in 40 deaths.
adults well-aware that sanitisa- This prompted the pre-
tion, masks and social distancing vious administration to
are preconditions of resumption of introduce the Act which
on-campus education. We need to mandated a 16 percent
balance calculated risk of contracting quota for the commu-
Covid-19 against losing a whole year nity in public higher
and jeopardising our careers,” says education institutions
Antarish Rana, a first year student and government em-
of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha ployment. On June 27,
University, Delhi. Maratha quota protestors storming Mumbai 2019 the Bombay high
Admittedly, opening up univer- court upheld the Act but
sity campuses at a time when the their protests. trimmed the quotas to 12 percent in
Covid-19 pandemic is still raging Quotas for Marathas who clas- education and 13 percent in govern-
countrywide and shows little sign of sify themselves as a backward caste/ ment jobs as recommended by the
abating, is a risky proposition. But in community has been a long-stand- Gaikwad Committee.
the larger interest of students it has ing issue in the state with succes- However, following judicial sanc-
to be taken. With adequate safe- sive governments making a reserved tion of the 12 percent quota for
guards which are likely to test the quota for the community a standard Marathas in education institutions,
management capabilities of HEIs. electoral promise. However, neither total reservations in higher education
Autar Nehru (Delhi) the Mandal Commission (1980) nor institutions has risen to 75 percent
other commissions set up by the Ma- after taking into consideration quota
MAHARASHTRA harashtra government have identified for scheduled castes (15 percent),
Quota upon quotas Marathas as a socially or education- scheduled tribes (7.5 percent), other
ally backward community/class per-
backward castes (27 percent) and no-
haps because ten of the state’s 18 chief madic tribes (2.5). Another ten per-
he state’s tri-party maharashtra ministers since the state’s formation cent quota was reserved countrywide
Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in 1960, have been Marathas and the by the Central government’s Economi-
Tgovernment comprising the community controls the state’s sugar, cally Weaker Section Reservation Act,
Shiv Sena, Indian National Congress milk, cooperative banks and numer- 2019, in January 2019 applicable to all
(INC) and the Nationalist Congress ous private education institutions. states.
Party (NCP), suffered a major setback The previous Bharatiya Janata hese quotas when added up are far
on September 9 with the Supreme Party-Shiv Sena (BJP-Shiv Sena) Tin excess of the 50 percent ceiling
Court staying the state government’s coalition government was finally in- for all reserved quotas imposed by the
Socially and Educationally Backward spired to carve out a reserved quota Supreme Court in Indira Sawhney’s
Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018. The Act for Marathas following the report of Case (1993). However, this ceiling
provides 12 and 13 percent reserva- an 11-member Justice M.G. Gaikwad has been breached by several south-
tion quotas for the Maratha com- Committee, submitted in 2018, which ern state governments notably Tamil
munity (who constitute 32 percent of states that the community’s creamy Nadu, where reserved quota students
the state’s population of 115 million) layer apart, 37 percent of Marathas fill 69 percent capacity in public high-
in government jobs and education live below the poverty line and 93 per- er education institutions. Legislation
institutions. Hearing five petitions cent of Maratha households earn less breaching the ceiling imposed by the
filed against the constitutional valid- than Rs.1 lakh per year. Therefore, the Supreme Court has been parked in the
ity of the Act, a three-judge bench of committee recommended 12 percent Ninth Schedule which is beyond judi-
the apex court stayed the Act and re- reservation in government colleges/ cial purview. In effect, the Maratha
ferred the case to an 11-judge constitu- universities and 13 percent in govern- community’s demand is for Ninth
tion bench. Annoyed about the MVA ment jobs for Marathas. Schedule status for the SEBC Act. And
government’s inability to vacate the It’s pertinent to note the SEBC with Marathas totalling 32 percent of
stay, Maratha organisations across Act was enacted by the previous BJP- the population of Maharashtra, the
the state have been protesting since Shiv Sena government which ruled struggling MVA coalition government
September 27, threatening to intensify the state from 2014-19 after mem- has little option but to support the

16 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2020