Just a handful of ST students make it

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Just_a_handful_of_ST_students_make_it/articleshow/3316734.cms

Just a handful of ST students make it
2 Aug 2008, 0152 hrs IST, Hemali Chhapia,TNN

MUMBAI: Union HRD minister Arjun Singh may not have dreamt of this
when he announced his plan to start six new IITs: just a handful of
Scheduled Tribe (ST) students — considered among the most backward
classes — has made it to the new institutions in 2008-09. Worse, most
seats reserved for SCs and STs in the older IITs are also vacant.

Of the 3.11 lakh students who took the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE),
8,514 were STs and 28,393 SCs. In all, the 13 IITs have 414 seats for
ST candidates, but only 159 students were shortlisted after the JEE.
Similarly, for the 832 seats reserved for SCs across 13 campuses, only
690 students qualified.

While some SC/ST seats in the older IITs will be filled by students
who were admitted to a preparatory course in 2007, there will be no
such admission in the newer IITs. There will be an "aberration" for
the new IITs in this regard, said IIT-Delhi director Surendra Prasad.
Each IIT sets aside 15% seats for SC and 7.5% seats for ST students.
The reserved category students were shortlisted after the IITs relaxed
entry norms drastically for them.

For instance, if the first candidate in the general category scored
433, his counterpart in the ST merit list scored 292. If one looks
lower down the order, the students who came last in the SC and ST
categories scored 104 each, with marks as low as 8 for the SC
candidate and 12 for the ST candidate in physics (see box). The
scenario for the new entrants__Other Backward Classes__is rather
different. No relaxation of marks was required to admit OBC students
and those seats were also not filled.

The IITs, which have already been lowering admission levels for SCs
and STs, now feel that with the number of seats for these categories
going up, while general category seats stay constant, a larger
population of students will have to be taken in, probably at
rock-bottom scores.

IIT-Bombay director Ashok Misra, who had pointed this out to the
Veerappa Moily Oversight Committee, feels the issue has been
completely overlooked. "To take in so many reserved category students,
admission criteria will have to be relaxed," he told TOI. The reserved
categories' tale keeps repeating itself over the years. Last year, the
aggregate score of the last ranker in the general category was 206;
the same scores for SC and ST candidates stood at 126. Several
reserved category students who scored below 126 were also taken in for
the year-long preparatory course.

A 1993 report by ex-IIT-Madras director P V Indiresan and ex-IIT-Delhi
director N C Nigam dwelled on the impact of quotas in IITs. "Nearly
50% of the reserved seats remain vacant as SC/ST students are unable
to secure the minimum threshold marks (two-thirds of the last
candidate admitted in the general category). Of those admitted, almost
25% are asked to leave due to poor performance," the report said.

Times View
To let over 430 seats in IITs go vacant is criminal waste of an
extremely precious resource. Reservations are justified to give a leg
up to disadvantaged sections of society. But where they are not able
to fill up the quota because enough suitable candidates are not
available, the cut-off for the general list should be relaxed so that
all seats are used up. These seats are "perishable"; if they are not
used this year, they can't be carried over next year. So, we should
not waste them and make optimum use of the infrastructure created.
This should, of course, in no way affect next year's quota.