Caste System and Reservations - Boon or Bane?

What does caste have to do with education? One would simply assume
education needs to be purely merit based, for those who deserve it,
from an intellectual standpoint. I am one of those, that have never
and probaly never will understand why anyone should study or not
study, because of what caste or communit they belong to.

Excerpt from an interesting article in the Washington Post written by
Emily Wax--
"Not so long ago, in the back of a tin-roofed restaurant, Ramu, a
teenage dishwasher, spent his nights chained to a radiator. That's how
his employer kept him from running away.

Ramu wanted to flee because his boss, who was from a higher, more
privileged caste, constantly berated him for showing an interest in
learning to read. The boss believed Ramu had to get used to a life of
cleaning up after other people because as a Dalit, a member of India's
lowest and most shunned caste, he could never amount to anything.

Then a foreigner who ran a private school and home for Dalit children
noticed Ramu. He enrolled him in classes. Ramu is now a star pupil
with a voracious and ever-changing appetite for activities including
yoga, photography and film directing.

"In my childhood, I was so desperate for learning," said Ramu, a
gregarious 19-year-old with thick brown hair. "There are so many jobs
other than dishwashing that I hoped to experience.""

Read the full article at-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/19/AR2008011901079.html?nav=rss_email/components