NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court upheld on Thursday a government policy to reserve more college seats for students from lower castes, a fiercely debated affirmative action scheme intended to help flatten centuries-old social hierarchies.
Just under half of all seats in state colleges anduniversities will now be reserved for people born into thelower end of India's caste system and other social groups thathave historically lacked wealth and power.
The scheme is one of the world's biggest affirmativeactions and will be enforced this coming academic year startingin July in some of India's most elite universities, includingthe Indian Institutes of Management and the Indian Institutesof Technology.
Advocates of the scheme hope it will help dissolvecenturies of upper-caste privilege and lead to a moreegalitarian society. Similar quotas exist for government jobsand parliamentary seats.
Previously, just under a quarter of seats were reserved forcertain tribal communities and people from the lowest castes,including Dalits, the 16 percent or so of Indians born into thevery bottom of the Hindu caste system.
Now another 27 percent of college seats must go to studentsfrom what the government calls "other backward classes", thecourt ruled.
But the Supreme Court said reserved seats would not be opento students from "backward" communities who came from wealthyfamilies, a group often called "the creamy layer".
There is evidence quotas have made some people more acutelyconscious of caste differences in India.
Some communities have marched through the streets demandingto be considered "backward", so as to qualify for quotas. Morethan 20 people were killed last year during protests by anethnic group demanding they be deemed an underprivileged tribe.
Critics also say that admitting students by any criteriaother than intellectual merit will inevitably degradeeducational standards in a country already struggling toproduce enough competent graduates to work in its rapidlygrowing economy.
Upper-caste students have led protests since the proposalfor expanding quotas was cleared by parliament in 2006.
But the government insists it is expanding its educationalsystem so smart upper-caste students will not lose their chanceto go to college.
"No one will be excluded," Arjun Singh, India's humanresources development minister, told reporters.
(Reporting by R. Venkataraman; Writing by Jonathan Allen;Editing by Michael Perry)
