Ah but you may as well caste your fate to the wind

Reuters is reporting, "The government [of India] said it would push ahead with the controversial move that will see nearly half the seats in the state's top higher educational institutes reserved for lower castes and tribes.... Though caste discrimination is banned in India and punishable by law, lower caste groups still face prejudice, harassment and even violence in rural parts of the country and smaller towns.

"A similar move in 1990 to reserve more government jobs for lower castes caused many upper caste students to immolate themselves, increasing overall caste tension.

"At present, government-funded colleges have to allocate 22.5% of their seats to the so-called Scheduled Castes -- formerly untouchables -- and tribal students, who are elegible for admission with lower grades. The government's latest move proposes an extra 27% for other lower caste groups."

See, also, India health services hit by protests over quotas

Patients in many hospitals in India went without treatment on Monday as services were disrupted by a protest by doctors and medical students against a government plan to raise college quotas for the disadvantaged.

Passions over the latest quota move were further stoked after TV showed police beating protesting medical students with canes in the financial hub of Mumbai on Saturday, provoking senior doctors at private and state-run hospitals to join the campaign.

"I was very upset and shocked at the police action," said Delhi surgeon Ajit Mann Singh. "This strike is totally justified."

In Mumbai, over 1,000 medical students and interns, shouting slogans like "Down with the police" assembled in a public ground to protest the police cane charge.

But in the northern city of Lucknow, hundreds of lower caste Hindus took a rally to support the reservation move.

India's health minister Anbumani Ramadoss lashed out at the protesting doctors.

"They can't say one fine day they are not joining duty ... here lives are being affected," he told NDTV news channel, warning striking government doctors they could be replaced.

and, FACTBOX-The debate over caste-based quotas in India

And finally, see if you can get anything out of the local report, "Government is committed to reservation: Arjun Singh"


PS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/south_asia/4216290.stm

reservation in india