Click to play videoNew Delhi: The government's move to hike OBC reservations seems to be heading towards a stalemate.
Two social scientists have proposed an alternative model, which takes into account both academic merit and social disadvantage and not just caste.
"Merit and social justice are seen as one dimensional thing, which cannot possibly be reconciled. What we are trying to say is that both merit and social justice are multidimensional phenomena," Prof Yogendra Yadav, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies says.
This model proposes reservation based on group and individual disadvantages. Group disadvantages include caste, community, gender, and region.
The individual focuses on parental occupation and type of schooling.
The final quantum of reservation computes merit and social disadvantages in a ratio of 80:20.
"The salient feature of our model is that it tries to re-focus attention on why we need the policies like these to tackle issues like inequalities in education and backwardness in economic and social terms," Prof Satish Deshpande says.
However, the social scientists who propose the new model feel that it will rectify the problems of the present reservation model
"The proposal that we have is better, a) It recognises the fact that the condition of SC/ST is different from the rest of disadvantages and b)It eliminates the need for all kinds of other patch work solutions like some five per cent reservation for the poor and things like that," Prof Yadav says.
The quota protests have so far failed to stop the government from implementing the policy.
However, they have generated an intense debate that is a clear indication that the policy needs a revamp.
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