Quota: Legislation necessary if Ind fails to respond

New Delhi, Jan 20: Planning Commission Member Dr Balachandra Mungekar today said legislation for giving reservation to Scheduled Castes and Tribes in the private sector should be made if the industry itself does not take adequate affirmative action to increase their representation.

However, the corporate leaders had assured that they would do it voluntarily, which was welcome and they should be given a chance, Mungekar told reporters here after delivering the inaugural lecture at the Indo-China Conference on Higher Education here.

He said it was unfortunate that the industry had not done anything for the deprived sections till it was directed by the government.

''But let us hope now that they will make up for the neglect. And if that does not happen, then in my opinion some legislative measures would be necessary,'' he said.

Dr Mungekar was also a Member of the Moily Commitee set up to suggest roadmap for implementing 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs in higher educational institutions.

Earlier, speaking at the seminar he called upon the academic community to shed off their prejudices against reservation on the ground that it erodes efficiency.

''Merit and efficiency are social products and not attached to any class or caste,'' he said.

Underscoring the role of education in achieving equality, he said.

It can play the role of an equaliser provided maximum number of people were given increased access to higher, technical and vocational education.

In this context, he pointed out that India would be spending six per cent of its GDP on education in the 11th five-year plan starting from April.

Recalling Nobel Laureata Prof Schultz's use of the term 'human capital, the Planning Commission Member said spending on building up human resources was the most useful investment a society could make.

Education was an investment which gives mobility and productivity to human capital.

''Equality was not an economic phenomena. It is an end in itself.

The globalisation has to take care of this factor,'' he added.

He praised China for paying consitant attention to higher education despite many upheavals it had sufferred in its history.

Earlier, echoing similar views, Chairman of the University Grants Commission Prof Sukhdev Thorat said higher education was a source of social and economic mobility, which was a prerequisite for the progress of the community.

He said the discussion in the two-day seminar wil focus on the the issues related to education that has interface with growth and equity.

Head of the Chinese delegation Hao Xishan also addressed the conference.

A large number of academicians and experts are attending the seminar.

UNI