Recently, many students mobilized in Bangladesh to agitate against the “quota” system and it was wrongly reported in India that Bangladesh abolished “reservation” system. For many reasons, the correct reporting of the news from Bangladesh about the “quota” stir is important for Indians to understand.

First of all, the “quota” system in Bangladesh is like the reservation of the “upper castes” in India. The 30 percent of the seats are reserved for the students coming from the “freedom fighters” background. It means those families which fought in the “war of independence” of Bangladesh against Pakistan in 1971 have the “quota”. There are over 250000 families that have this quota. The certificates are either forged or bribed, in many cases.

This quota system is like the quota system of the Indian upper castes, by virtue of their position in the pecking order of the order, the mere 15 percent of them get to occupy the maximum “quota” in not only the educational institutes but also in the jobs. The agitating students in Bangladesh were not against the “quota” for the minorities and other small groups (this accounts for 10 percent of the quota) and other sections of the population like disabled.

In India, the situation is not different from Bangladesh. The unwritten quota of the upper castes must be removed and must be made more equitable in proportion to their population. As made clear by many studies now that diversity is vitally important for the success of any policies and the societies.

The SC, ST, OBC, and minorities are not represented in the Indian system in the proportion of their population. The judiciary is completely hacked by India’s upper caste. The Indian media is fully dominated by upper castes. The higher echelons of the bureaucracy are taken over by India’s upper castes.

India needs people’s movement to remove the quota of “India’s so-called upper castes”, just like Bangladeshi youths did, India’s underprivileged youths who are the majority in India must rise up!

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist

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