If we accept this, we have to ask ourselves whether the reservation route is in fact the best means to bridge this gap. Based on my own experience over the last 45 years as a teacher and researcher in the field of rural development in premier institutes, I am convinced that: one, securing social justice for everyone — and not necessarily only for the people belonging to SCs, STs, and OBC — is a desirable goal. Two, as borne out by the experience of the last half century, reservation is not the best available instrument to achieve the goal of social security for all. Three, the proposed reservation will not secure social justice to those who are deprived of it — it will only benefit the creamy layer of the eligible classes who are neither poor nor in need of social justice. There are other alternatives to reservation which are financially more efficient, socially more equitable and politically more acceptable.

For the sake of brevity, I have tried to encapsulate my proposed solution in the form of a package of recommended lines of action. First, we need to provide equal access and equal opportunity to free quality education to everyone, irrespective of caste, creed, and economic status, right from the primary to the higher secondary school level. For this we will need to build reasonably good schools equipped with modern teaching and learning facilities, recruit and train teachers in large numbers, and entrust the management of these schools to panchayati raj institutions.

Second, for students from the underprivileged sections of society, we need to provide free lodging and boarding in school hostels so that they have a congenial environment for learning. Gujarat’s Ashram Shala schools are a good example of this kind of school.

Third, we need to revise curricula and textbooks at all levels so as to make education more relevant to the needs of the present generation. The same curriculum should be followed all over the country in all schools, as is done in all the developed countries of the world.

If the first three suggestions are implemented effectively, all the students will have equal access and equal opportunity to quality education of the same standard all over the country, and there will not be any need to claim reservation on the basis of caste, class or creed. Only merit should then be the basis for admission into undergraduate and post-graduate level courses, with the income of the parents deciding whether or not the student should be entitled to financial assistance.

The money — estimated at Rs 8,000 crore — required for increasing the number of seats in institutes of higher learning, could be better spent in building and strengthening basic infrastructure in primary, secondary, and higher secondary schools in the country, and in the training of teachers.

I know almost all developed countries, including China, provide free quality education up to the higher secondary level to all students irrespective of caste, creed, ethnic and economic background. Admission to institutes of higher learning, however, is based on merit only. In fact most of the students terminate their education after the 12th standard and are self-employed, or take up jobs suitable to their qualification and aptitude. In the US, UK, Canada and other developed countries most of the students pursuing higher education are foreigners. Unlike us in India, they do not produce graduates and post-graduates who are not fit for employment.

To sum up, there is no primrose path to social justice. We have to opt for a more nuanced and effective approach and follow it up patiently and faithfully after mobilising all the financial, material and human resources needed for the purpose. I am sure that if this is done we will, in 15 years, be socially and economically a more egalitarian society — and one that is committed to standards of excellence in every field.

The writer is a former director of the Institute of Rural Management, Anandsinghkatar@gmail.com