Brain Drain, also known as “The human capital fight”, is the migration of skilled people from one country to another. This can be due to many reasons such as a nation’s political instability and lack of opportunities. One of the primary countries experiencing brain drain is India. Even though, its high population growth reduces the impact of this brain drain on the country’s economy, nevertheless, there is no denying that this is not happening. The situation in India is like that of a reservoir, with its population growth filling from the top, while the tap at the bottom is wide open draining the country of intellectual ability. Let us first observe one of the primary factors causing this brain drain in India.
Indian Government provides for a quota system where a percentage of posts are reserved in public and private educational institutions. First, let me explain the pretext presented by the Government as a justification for the reservation. For this, I feel that the following excerpt from Wikipedia best describes this situation.
“The underlying theory is that the under-representation of the identifiable groups is a legacy of the Indian caste system. After India gained independence, the Constitution of India listed some erstwhile groups as Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). The framers of the Constitution believed that, due to the caste system, SCs and the STs were historically oppressed and denied respect and equal opportunity in Indian society and were thus under-represented in nation-building activities. The Constitution laid down 15% and 7.5% of vacancies to government aided educational institutes and for jobs in the government/public sector, as reserved quota for the SC and ST candidates respectively for a period of five years, after which the situation was to be reviewed. This period was routinely extended by the succeeding governments.
Later, reservations were introduced for other sections as well. The Supreme Court ruling that reservations cannot exceed 50% (which it judged would violate equal access guaranteed by the Constitution) has put a cap on reservations. However, there are state laws that exceed this 50% limit and these are under litigation in the Supreme Court. For example, the caste-based reservation fraction stands at 69% and is applicable to about 87% of the population in the state of Tamil Nadu.”
Usually, Indian educational institutions require a cut off mark from entrance examinations, as entry requirements. Bribing in the form of donations, “influence” factors and recommendations play a role in educational institutions bending their requirements. What is not written in the above excerpt is that under this quota system, Government actively facilitates caste differentiation. SC and ST candidates are granted admission into colleges with lower cut off marks (about 60-70%), while candidates from FC (Forward Caste) have to attain a near impossible cut off (in 90s range) to get into reputable institutions.
While this may give rise to discussions like “Government misusing power”, “Inequality disguised as Equality”, “Caste System – A guide for controlling people”, my current essay is about the basic moral principles based on the rudimentary version of right and wrong.
A man has to earn his living and his ability is his fuel to do so. The sensible thing to do is to let man create his own world, by leaving his ability alone. The basic function of the Government is to ensure justice, i.e. by making sure that he does not disturb others and others do not disturb him. It is the highly competent men who should be encouraged to perform.
Reverting back to the issue at hand, the Tamil Nadu Government currently is encouraging incompetency under the cover that it is actually increasing equality. Let me illustrate with an example. Sam and Paul studied in the same school till the 12th Grade in Tamil Nadu. They both want to get into an engineering college for their undergraduate degree. Sam loves studying and is eager to become a researcher in the field of Communications technology. Paul does not like reading at all, and wants to become a politician. Apparently, his dad was a politician and they insisted that he finish an undergraduate degree at least. The most popular University in Tamil Nadu are IIT, NIT and Anna University in that order. Sam unfortunately does not get the required cut off marks in the respective entrance examinations of NIT and IIT. The next most popular university is the Tamil Nadu state’s Anna University. So, Sam and Paul ended up competing among thousand others for Anna University. Sam got 96.7% while Paul secured 65.6%. The cut off marks for Anna University read something like this:
FC (Forward Caste): 98%
BC/OBC (Backward Caste): 70%
SC/ST (Scheduled Caste / Tribe): 60%
So, Sam didn’t succeed and ended up in another college, while Paul continued his Bachelor’s from Anna University. Sam secured an aggregate of 92% over 4 years of Engineering and he went on to do Masters from Carnegie Melon University and ended up settling there in the US. Paul cleared his engineering during his third attempt and went on to become a politician.
The claim of Anna University is that students like Paul should be encouraged to study further. While the initiative to spread the importance of education is noble, the act of killing competency and punishing the ones who are good because they are talented lowers all such practicing institutions to the level of barbarians in the Medieval Ages. The funniest part is that after denying the intellectuals an opportunity to function in their homeland, they turn around and say “Shame on Non Returning Indians” (NRI’s new abbreviation). Well, what do you expect? The intellectuals should suffer for their virtues ?
It isn’t obvious to the law makers that quota system is in fact a form of discrimination, and law should prohibit discriminations of any kind. But then, let’s discuss about that in another article. I feel that the entire foundation of deciding cut off marks in educational institutions like those in Tamil Nadu should be based on percentiles and percentages which measure candidate’s ability rather than their caste.
India is one of the greatest countries in the world, practicing the largest democracy and home to such cultural diversity beyond one’s imagination. Once upon a time, this was the land where knowledge flowed and universities and civilizations existed predating any historical records in existence. India won its freedom from the British rule in 1947. Has it really won freedom ? I hope to live till the day it does win its freedom from those who believe in the word “Power”.
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