EPSI-Educational Promotion Society for India

i)	As far as government institutions are concerned, since the government is supporting financially, they have the right to put in the kind of social agenda in their admissions process which they deem fit for the welfare of the nation.

ii)	As far as the government aided institutions are concerned, whatever are the social concerns that they would like an institution to take up on the grounds that it has been aided should be spelt out right at the beginning so that there are no surprises later on, and the aided institution is aware that if it is to receive aid from the government, then these are the norms which they are supposed to meet and put together as a social agenda of the government in the country.

iii)	There has to be uniformity in the overall policy of reservation among different states within the overall percentage decided, the categories and the percentage within may be decided by the States)

iv)	As far as the private unaided education sector is concerned they also have the social obligation but at the same time it should not be imposed but rather a dialogue should be conducted to find the best method of getting this done.

v)	In the process of admission there should be a merit cut off for the reserved category also, i.e. admission based on merit.

vi)	The system of reservation should be based on the analogy that even in the government sectors; the reservations are at the recruitment level. When it comes to promotions there is a priority system, so that there are fast track promotions. Hence we need to see the application to elementary education versus higher education.

vii)	The institute should have the right to directly admit the students in the general category as well as separately in the reserved category. The criteria of admission should be fully transparent and strictly based on merit.

viii)	(10% -15% leverage in the merit for the reserved category). There merit may be 10%-15% lower then the lowest merit of the student admitted from the general category. But it should be mandatory for those students to qualify the minimum passing marks.

ix)	There should be some mechanism to recover or compensate the cost incurred on those students who belong to the weaker section (reserved category). i.e. the state should come forward to take the burden or the institution should be allowed to raise the fees of the general category.

x)	Certainly there is no point in making reservations where seats are just going empty and nobody is benefiting out of the situation. (If sufficient students are not found in the reserved category, the institution should be allowed to fill those seats based on merit and accordingly intimate the concerned authority/regulatory body). Similarly there should be a cut off date for admission.