Govt case: OBC and merit do not clash

A report on 1,17930 students from the Visvesvarya Technological Institute, a leading Engineering Institute in Belgaum, from 1998 to 2005 finds that 8220; the percentage of graduating students from the OBC category has been increasing from 93.01 per cent batch 1998-2002 to 97.4 per cent batch 2001-2005. Their performance has been consistently better than the performance of the general category students.8221; In the same institute, while the percentage of those with first classes with distinction was 38.87 per cent 2001-2005, the OBC figures stood at 43.79 per cent.

The report also compared OBC figures with that of SC-ST students. While OBC students are way ahead of SC-ST students, even the SC-ST figures fly in the face of common belief. Their pass percentage of 82.98 in 1998-2001 rose to 90.11 per cent 2001-2005.

Due to 8220;limited time8221;, the study says it was 8220;limited to engineering disciplines8221;. But it concludes that 8220;there does not seem to be any reduction or loss of performance due to introduction of OBC candidates.8221;

Tamil Nadu

Here the total percentage of reserved seats adds up to 69 per cent. In a study of students from the school leaving level to their graduation reveals that till Class XII, and the Entrance Examination for Professional Colleges, the difference between the backward classes, most backward classes and the general category was large, with the backwards doing badly. But there is a surprising change by the time the graduation levels are compared. For example, for 2005, while the general category students who got more than 50 marks out of 300 is 52.44 per cent, it8217;s merely 37.30 for the backward classes. But for the same year, when students of Anna University are classified by social categories, the results are astounding. In the general category, the percentages of first class with distinctions are 1.37 per cent. But for backward classes, it is way higher at 6.18 per cent.

Kerala

The Kerala study prepared by the Centre for Management Development, Thiruvananthapuram, says that till 2002, the number of candidates in the reserved category of SEBC8212;or Socially and Educationally Backward Castes8212;who came through reservations exceeded those who came from these communities through the merit list. The trend since has changed 8220;as more candidates through Ezhava, Muslim, Backward Hindu, and Latin Catholic other than Anglo Indian Communities from 2003 onwards secured admission through merit, when compared to those through mandatory reservation.8221;