Reservation

The Reservation Bill for professional courses and private jobs has created quite a stir in the Indian sub continent. A large number of students, especially medical students protested against the bill. There were instances of violence too. Political parties twist the issue to their benefits.
The students argue that admissions to higher education and private jobs should be on the basis of merit.
Government is providing free school and subsidized college education to poor students. But a student who is educated from a government school is never at par with a student who gets private education. The quality of government education is very poor. The government should take steps to address this issue of gap in quality of government and private education.
Students who appear for competitive exams for professional courses take tuition. These tuition are very expensive and unaffordable by poor students. The rich kids could take the tuition and pass the competitive exams not because they are superior but just because their parents had money. Reservation for poor students is a way to address this issue unless the government conducts tuition for the poor students or agrees to pay for their tuition costs.
Until the government addresses the issue of quality gap in government and private education and bearing of tuition costs for competitive exams, reservation should be given to poor students. Reservation shouldn't be caste based but all poor students irrespective of caste and creed should get the benefit.
There are people who are of the view that people from lower caste should get reservation because even today it is the lower caste people who do menial jobs like toilet cleaning and sweeping.
What the government can do is go for conditional reservations. In areas where even today there are untouchables, reservation should be caste based. In areas where the caste system has stabilized reservation should be for poor people irrespective of caste. There are even places in India where minority groups like Muslims and Christians bear the burnt. In such places reservation should be given to the minority groups.
It is high time people in India understood the Dignity of labor and came forward to take up any job.