Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Creamy layer

The government’s decision to increase the income ceiling for the creamy layer among the OBCs from Rs. 2.5 lakh to Rs. 4.5 lakh per annum is unfortunate. Politicians will do anything to secure votes. First, what yardstick was used to determine that those earning Rs.2.5 lakh per annum were backward? And what prompted the increase in the ceiling?

Such a quota system will dilute the standards of our top educational institutions. Instead, meritorious students from among the OBCs can be given monthly stipends. This way, the aim of achieving economic improvement and maintaining the standards of our educational institutions can be accomplished.

V Sridhar,

Coimbatore

Are OBCs earning between Rs. 2.5 lakh and Rs. 4.5 lakh a year backward? They are better off than many belonging to the forward classes. The government should not risk the country’s future for votes.

Atul Handa,

Amritsar

The decision will further dampen the people’s declining faith in the education system. It is an injustice to all hard-working students who dream of getting into a good college. Families with an annual income of Rs. 4.5 lakh are economically backward? There are thousands of children who can’t afford even two meals a day but get no government support. The government’s winning-vote-bank policy will take India nowhere.

Ashutosh Garg,

New Delhi

Reservation was introduced for uplifting those socially backward sections who had no means of bringing their children on a par with the socially and economically forward sections. Increase in the annual income ceiling for the creamy layer will defeat the objective. Once again the socially and economically backward people will be deprived of opportunities.

R. Kumara Kannan,

Chennai

The very mention of the term creamy layer sparks a debate and elicits a sharp response. In the social context, the creamy layer is a misnomer. Reservation is the outcome of social backwardness of the majority, which was marginalised on the basis of caste. Economic advancement is not a benchmark for social uplift. Reservation can be done away with if the people shed their casteist attitude. Will the son of a person on the lowest rung of the caste ladder be married to a girl belonging to a caste at the top of the hierarchy, with all the fanfare that accompanies a traditional wedding? That is the benchmark and reservation can stop then. Till such time, even the so-called creamy layer will have no implication for the social fabric.

K.A. Mohamed Anis,

Chennai

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