Another Indian Paradox

There was a news item recently that there are more religious shrines in India than schools and hospitals combined. Although, I don't find anything wrong with that, it does reflect that we Indians are quite religious and our belief in afterlife and karma is supreme. Now, the paradox lies here. We all go to temples to get some favor from God, and add to our account of good karma, but for doing this, we add so many more bad karmas. e.g. we pay to get vip darshan, we do not follow any discipline or rules and at drop of hat push people, jump lines, avoid lines, not even caring for small children and infants. We look at beggers with harted, scold them, no do anything to make their lives better but we will give away hundreds in the temple which will be used to make the temple better, add gold to it and make it more attractive and bigger to invite more people and add to this mayhem.

BTW, why do I say that its not baffling that there are more religious shrines than schools and hospitals, because not every one is sick and needs a hospital at a given time and only people of certain age go to school, which is only a fraction. But everyone goes to temples and prays - everyday! or at least they are supposed to. Therefore, I didn't find this news item that striking!

Should there be reservation for OBC?

Today Supreme Court has upheld the government decision to reserve 27% seats for OBC candidates in educational institutions. While government action is a welcome step to bring equality among the people, I am not sure if this is the right step. For one, by not having a robust primary education system, the reserved seats in higher education institutes in futile. Without basics, students in higher classes wouldn't gain much and will be subjected to undue pressure. There are already numerous cases of suicides among students who are unable to cope up with the pressure and expectations of their parents and relatives.

Secondly, this kind of action is more politically driven and any action with no proper basis, leads to more disintegration on the country. This will cause division of society. This is definitely unwelcome. There is this increasing trend of divisional politics (another case in point it Raj Thakhery's Marathi politics) and this will lead to more problems for emerging India and will slow down the progress.

Then what should be done? One way out is to have reservation, if any, based on financial status. This also can be done by providing lower interest rate educational loans which can be repaid after the job. This will bring some accountability to everyone and these seats would not be taken for granted. We already have demand-supply mismatch. Any deserving student should get the seat and finance should not be a hurdle.

We also need a robust primary education system. A system where everyone is encouraged to go to school, the schools should be good with teachers who are motivated. Education should be free at primary level for financially challenged students. Unless this gap is plugged any affirmative action only at the top level would not help anyone and will only have negative consequences.