Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Non Creamy Layer Cerificates - Only for the Creamy?

Hi! Blogging after a very small break! A recent incident is the trigger for this post.
All these years I was having a different view on Reservation policy of India till I received the marksheet of my Servant maid Lakshmi's son.
A brief intro about Lakshmi-Always smiling with innocence even after getting severely beaten by her irresponsible husband.
A stress buster for me with her unique and interesting rural marathi dialect ( I can dedicate a post on our conversations :-) ;-))
A typical Indian woman who is ready to toil for the education of her  children and who refuse to send her son for minor errands  which can fetch her some more money so that his studies should not be disturbed.
Annual income 15,000 to 50,000.
No own house, so lives in one room (rental).(I am giving this info bcos this point is very important for this post).
In spite of all unfriendly circumstances,her son scored 86.6%(with 93% in maths) in recent SSC board exams of Maharashtra.
From his 8 th standard , a very consistent and hardworking student.Impressed by his performance all needed support was provided to him.
When he got his result,he rushed to our house to show the marksheet.After brief felicitations, discussions about his future studies came up.we decided to apply to both  polytechnic and 11th. But preference will be for Polytechnic.
I accompanied him to get the application form and there I came to know about his category.Dhangar caste(Sheperd) which belongs to Nomadic tribe Category and  comes under Resevation quota with fee waiver.He is one of the true beneficiary of our reservation system.I felt very happy and smiled at him."Don't worry your admission is pucca and with a fee waiver."
All my happiness drained when I saw the list of certificates to be attached.
Non creamy layer certificate and caste certificate.
"I think you have both"

"No!" he nodded his head horizontally."My parents were ignorant about these cetificates.so don't have one.but my father has gone to our village to procure one".

"Arre Lakshmi!Why didn't you do these thing before itself?"
"We tried but we could'nt produce 2 certificates which asked for our ancestors who got married before 1950 and our family hierarchy.So now my husband is managing somehow(?!) to get the caste certificate in our village.He has got the receipt now.we ll get the certificate in 15 days".
"Do you have the xerox copy of receipt?I ll attach it with the application.I don't know whether they will accept it".
Next hurdle,Non creamy layer certificate.For that,Annual income certificate certificate should be produced(?!).
Lakshmi knocked at collector office and Tehsildar's office for enquiry.They want a residential proof.Accepted! Rules are rules!
But in her case,She doesn't have a own house.Unfriendly house owner is refusing to give his electricity bill and photo to a notary who can give her an affidavit that she is residing there.Without that they won't give the income certicate and further a Non creamy layer certificate based on her annual income.Her ration card mentions that her residence is in village near Parner,Maharashtra.But she has to produce income certificate in Pune...which is meaningless,confusing and difficult.
Iam tired now.Really tired of all these rules.I would like to ask the government some simple questions.
1.If  they are really poor and non creamy how can they own a house and what are the other means of producing residential proof to get a non creamy layer certificate?
2.Why so much confusion in the process of issuing Caste certificates?.
3.When the educated and rich candidates who belong to suppressed castes easily sail through the admission process and get admissions,Why the real needy and suppressed are denied of their fundamental rights?
4.What are the other alternatives proposed by Government of India to tackle these issues and how are they going to help the deserving candidates who are missing the opportunities of their lifetime?

I know that I am talking to a Wall which can't answer me but used this post to vent my anger.
Finally,I submitted the application form without the certificates and his form was converted to Open category and now we are waiting for the results with our fingers crossed.CU in next post.

4 comments:

Prasanna's Pen Speaks ... said...

vry good post padma... I want to tell abt my servant who is working in near by saibaba temple as watch woman ....she is very pucca in getting all thes certficates in time... she meets all the persons who are coming to temple and she widened her knowledge....sometimes she insist me to get aadhar cards etc... she educated her 2 children without paying any fee... one of her son she was able to get job in ccmb a govt organisation...sometimes these reservation quota are useful sometimes maynot be...

Padma said...

Thank u prasanna!but in our case the parents are ignorant.

Raja said...

Your servant maid's case evokes sympathy in me..hope her son gets into college without trouble...it is a challenge for the govt to make sure the reservation is truly for the needy ..lets see if Unique ID can tackle this partially

Padma said...

Thank u Raja! for reading this post and for ur comments.even we r praying for his admission.