Quota leads to less OBC seats in JNU

 August 19, 2008 , Indian Express

New Delhi, August 18 University’s own affirmative action policy took in more: officials
The Supreme Court-directed reservation for OBC category students in all central universities has had an opposing effect at Jawaharlal Nehru University this year. The premier varsity’s intake of students from Other Backward Classes has gone down by following the mandatory 27 per cent quota: compared to 353 OBC students admitted in JNU last year, the number stood at 157 as of August 11, three days before the last day of admission ended this Thursday.

The JNU administration did not want to reveal final admission figures but officials admitted that many seats are vacant still.

The administration blames the new reservation policy on the increasing gap in its OBC student intake. As per the university’s earlier admission policy, almost 20 per cent seats were given to OBC candidates on grounds of social deprivation. The procedure was in accordance with the university’s “affirmative action policy¶, which gave preference to students on grounds of social, regional and gender deprivation.

However, with the university following a 12-per cent reservation for OBC students, and an 18 per cent hike in the number of candidates, seats reserved for OBCs have gone down to 210. That still has not helped JNU fill up all its reserved seats, and with more than 50 seats for OBCs still vacant, the JNU Student’s Union (JNUSU) has been on a hunger strike for the past 10 days demanding that the seats be filled up.

Dean of Student Welfare V K Jain said, “The affirmative action policy we followed earlier was a much better model. Unfortunately, this year, that model had to go.¶ He said the problem between the administration and the student’s union arose due to different interpretations of the reservation guidelines laid down by the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development.

The student’s union, meanwhile, alleges that the university has not followed proper guidelines in the cut-off marks relaxation for OBCs. “The cut-off percentage is 40 for general candidates,¶ JNUSU general secretary Pallavi Deka said. “But in accordance with the Supreme Court’s directions, a maximum relaxation of 10 points can be given to an OBC candidate with regard to unreserved candidates as a differential.¶

But officials said JNU has filled general seats according to a merit list, and has taken the lowest mark on which general seats are filled as the “cut-off¶. Accordingly, they said, the cut-off for OBC students has been set at 10 marks below this point.

JNU had increased total number of seats to 1,707 this year but several seats in reserved category have remained empty.

With members of the student’s union observing a hunger strike in protest, the university will hold a standing committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue and find a solution.

Decades before the Centre set up a reservation policy for students from OBC category, Jawaharlal Nehru University was the first education institution to set its own “Backwardness Regional Index¶. The aim was to maintain proper representation of students from different sections. Formed in 1972-73, the system gave points to students coming from smaller towns, OBC applicants, female candidates, disabled, and SC/ST students.
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