Being a Christian, a tribal and an arts graduate doesn’t give you much edge in the present day job market. But that puts you among the minority of minorities and that’s not a disadvantage –at least not in India. If you wonder what I mean, I am talking about the adorable evil called quota or reservation system in India.
The quota system enabled me to enroll myself into a college in Delhi University which I would not be able to get into if I were in the general category. Being a Christian (or the western education system it brought along) contributed to my medium of education that helped me sail through the three years where I was deemed unfit if I were to go along with their eligibility criteria set-up for the general category.
I know many other who managed a seat in the country’s best IT and Business school through the quota system. And if you want to apply for a government job, there are seats reserved for you. And there is more to come. With the Home Minister of the Congress led UPA govt. intent on implementing the quota system in private sector, we the tribal –with our ‘not qualified for the white collar job market but over qualified for blue collar job’ qualification, are the one to benefit the most.
When it comes to education, most of us from the North-east, especially the tribals, cannot afford the financial or infrastructural backing to get good education, especially the technical or management kind, or simply don’t have access to them. And a resume without any technical background is difficult to sell in today’s job market. But our modest English medium of education gives us an edge over our counterpart in the mainland whose medium of education is in some regional language rather than English.
Even though the quota system is yet to be implemented in the private sector, a certain number of them started showing-off how much tribals, dalits or backward class employee they have with them despite their resistance to its implementation. That definitely is good news for us, but it should be noted that even if the quota system is implemented in the private sector, it will be on voluntary basis, and we cannot expect much from it.
Still, what bother me is –if the quota system is implemented, what could be the possible implication for the tribals of north-east India? In my opinion, it would surely benefit those of us living outside the north-east of India, but in the north-east itself, it would hardly make any difference since there’s no private sector functioning from there.
Rather, it will spurt another wave of migration to the mainland. That would certainly be good news to the government if they are serious about greater integration, but it definitely won’t ring a bell with the various liberation armies back home (is that good news for us as well?). It would also means lost of roots and identities for many of us.
But as I said before, the quota system is yet to be implemented and that too on a voluntary basis so we cannot expect much benefits from it. As such, what we can do is –those of us who are already in the mainland should continue working hard -seriously and sincerely, and shows them (the mainlanders?) the stuffs that we are made of, and most importantly, occasionally sent a few thousand back home.
The quota system enabled me to enroll myself into a college in Delhi University which I would not be able to get into if I were in the general category. Being a Christian (or the western education system it brought along) contributed to my medium of education that helped me sail through the three years where I was deemed unfit if I were to go along with their eligibility criteria set-up for the general category.
I know many other who managed a seat in the country’s best IT and Business school through the quota system. And if you want to apply for a government job, there are seats reserved for you. And there is more to come. With the Home Minister of the Congress led UPA govt. intent on implementing the quota system in private sector, we the tribal –with our ‘not qualified for the white collar job market but over qualified for blue collar job’ qualification, are the one to benefit the most.
When it comes to education, most of us from the North-east, especially the tribals, cannot afford the financial or infrastructural backing to get good education, especially the technical or management kind, or simply don’t have access to them. And a resume without any technical background is difficult to sell in today’s job market. But our modest English medium of education gives us an edge over our counterpart in the mainland whose medium of education is in some regional language rather than English.
Even though the quota system is yet to be implemented in the private sector, a certain number of them started showing-off how much tribals, dalits or backward class employee they have with them despite their resistance to its implementation. That definitely is good news for us, but it should be noted that even if the quota system is implemented in the private sector, it will be on voluntary basis, and we cannot expect much from it.
Still, what bother me is –if the quota system is implemented, what could be the possible implication for the tribals of north-east India? In my opinion, it would surely benefit those of us living outside the north-east of India, but in the north-east itself, it would hardly make any difference since there’s no private sector functioning from there.
Rather, it will spurt another wave of migration to the mainland. That would certainly be good news to the government if they are serious about greater integration, but it definitely won’t ring a bell with the various liberation armies back home (is that good news for us as well?). It would also means lost of roots and identities for many of us.
But as I said before, the quota system is yet to be implemented and that too on a voluntary basis so we cannot expect much benefits from it. As such, what we can do is –those of us who are already in the mainland should continue working hard -seriously and sincerely, and shows them (the mainlanders?) the stuffs that we are made of, and most importantly, occasionally sent a few thousand back home.
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