Quota Conundrum: A Generation’s Ambition Under Threat
Total injustice, hopes dashed
This is total injustice and ‘murder’ of open merit students. Now, with fewer seats in the open category, my hopes have been dashed. Sahil Parray, a job aspirant
In 2019, when the Central Government removed the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the government said in Parliament it wanted to embrace the youth and give them “flourishing opportunities of employment”.
Five years later, new concerns are worrying the youth, triggered by a change in the reservation rules in the Union Territory. This year, the government granted 10 per cent reservation to the Pahari community in the UT, taking the reserved quota for different categories to 60 per cent, leaving only 40 per cent for the general population.
This means the general category students can now compete only for 40 per cent of the jobs and college seats. According to the 2011 census, around 69 per cent of J&K’s population belongs to the general category. “This is total injustice and ‘murder’ of open merit students,” Sahil Parray, a job aspirant from South Kashmir, told. He said the government granted the reservation by cutting job opportunities for the general category students.
He cites examples to prove his point. In 2018, the authorities notified 70 jobs for the prestigious J&K Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination. While 41 were open merit seats, the remaining 29 were meant for reserved categories. In 2024, of the total 90 advertised seats of the J&K Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination, the open merit seats were only 36 and the remaining 54 for reserved categories.
Parray said he had been preparing for various exams and was hopeful that he would crack these. “Now, with less seats in the open category, my hopes have been dashed,” he said. He shares another worry. “I can get a seat only in the general category. However, an aspirant from a reserved category is also eligible for a general category seat,” he said.
Aspirants say the new reservation rules for Paharis were introduced by the Central Government for “electoral politics” — to appease the Paharis, considered a populous group in the UT, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Bhat Shafqat, an aspirant from north Kashmir, said the opportunities for the general category students had now shrunk and the “future doesn’t look very promising”. Besides 60 per cent seats reserved for students of reserved categories, the “horizontal reservation” of 10 per cent was impacting the general category further, he said.
The youth from Jammu are also on the same page. Vinkal Sharma, a job aspirant from Jammu, said over the years, amid rising unemployment, several big recruitments were cancelled following scams and now the change in reservation rules was a big jolt to the general category students. “When the abrogation of Article 370 took place, we were hopeful that things would change for good. However, nothing changes for us…no one is listening to us now,” he said.
Last year, the Central Government said in Parliament nearly 30,000 vacancies were filled in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. Karthik Bhagat from Jammu terms the decision “unconstitutional”. He said along with others, he had recently approached the court in the matter.Aspirants say they knocked the door of all political parties ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, but it didn’t become a major poll issue. The parties maintained a silence with two individuals as exceptions — former Mayor Junaid Mattoo and Srinagar MP Ruhullah Mehdi.
“We approached all parties. However, we didn’t get any support from anyone,” said Parray. “Only two leaders spoke about it openly.”
People’s Democratic Party leader Waheed Parra had to delete a tweet which was in support of open category students. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti was quick to distance herself from Parra’s views.
Mehdi also raised the issue in Parliament saying that open merit was now limited to 30 per cent in the UT, while 70 per cent reservation had been kept for different categories. Renowned academic and former Vice Chancellor of the Islamic University of Science and Technology in Kashmir Siddiq Wahid told that “a bird’s eye view of the J&K’s reservation policy has some contradictions that, unless mitigated, will lead to severe economic unrest among the youth in the medium term.”
Talking about the “contradictions”, he said “first, it suffers from a democratic deficit in that the recent policies have been revised during a time when we have not had an elected government.”
He said, second, it “constitutes opportunity denial to those in the open merit category of citizens; as is well known, they constitute almost 70 per cent of the population, but will now have access to only 40 per cent of the job openings.” “Third, it overcompensates those who are in the reserved category of citizens, who constitute 30 per cent of the citizens of the territory,” he said.
He said “those who have historically been denied opportunities — Gujjars, Bakerwals, Paharis and others — must be compensated.” “However, that must be done via laws that are logical and fair, not ad hoc and arbitrary,” he said. Source
