Feasibility of private professional colleges exclusively for open category

The White Rabbit put on his spectacles.

 'Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' he asked.

'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely,

 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.' 

- Alice's adventures in Wonderland

There is a lot of discussion going on about the ways and means to combat the oppressive reservation imposed by the Maharashtra Government. The 16% reservation prescribed by the Government was pared down to 12% by the High Court. But together with 10 % reservation for Economically Weaker Sections [EWS], the reservation for education in Maharashtra has increased to 74%, an increase of 22% over the last year. 

The EWS quota was supposed to be implemented after increasing seats by 25% and to a large extent that has been complied with. The government has also promised to increase seats so as to compensate for the loss of open seats due to introduction of SEBC [Maratha] reservation. Yet as per a writ petition filed before the Nagpur Bench, the number of seats available for open category has decreased by 259. 

There are other issues regarding reservations. The pinch is being acutely felt because the generation suffering this increase was not a witness to the disruption of the social order caused by the implementation of the Mandal Commission Report. It had become almost immune to the existing reservation, maybe resigned to fate. 

Maratha reservation was a body blow to the medical fraternity, an elite and exclusive club where till about two decades ago, admission was more or less on the basis of talent. The gradual increase in regulations, the stringent conditions for getting through the course, the introduction of NEET had all contributed to the medical field being open to a select few who had the resources, willingness and above all dedication to devote at least eight years of life to become a specialist.

 Success in medical education was difficult but achievable with the right coaching, guidance and wise counseling at appropriate times. The medical fraternity is an insular community where hard work is rewarded, dedication is prized and talent is always recognized. This community, however, is built on the premise that there are seats available for the truly talented students, despite reservations taking away a sizeable chunk. But suddenly, almost half of the open seats are in danger of being gone forever. The very foundations are now rocking. 

Resultant panic has made sensible people propose wild theories, seek unviable solutions or worse, engage in escapist fantasies. Professionals who seldom took note of external events, rarely participated in social gatherings except of their own with the exception of Rotary and Lions etc are now vociferously advocating principles of equal opportunity and singing praises of meritocracy. There is amongst these bewildered people a growing number seeking establishment of privately funded medical colleges where the sole criterion for admission would be merit i.e. there would be no reservations. Is a medical (or any professional) college without reservations of any sorts feasible?

For a private medical college, the logistical difficulty of creating physical infrastructure and running the mandatory hospital with required number of beds apart; a big problem is the finance required. There are said to be financiers for the right projects, amongst them NRIs and wealthy Indian individuals. But the poor record of most privately run medical colleges show the mismatch between costs incurred and fees to be collected from students. It is a secret well known that the teaching staff requirements are scarcely met at such colleges. The quality of education is perfunctionary at best. The worst does not bear being written in black and white.

Where would you find quality doctors to impart education in private medical colleges? Would successful doctors, skilled surgeons, super-specialists with their own establishments to look after give time to teach? The professors around whom departments are built, the legends with giant minds but sharp tongues, the otherwise indifferent people who sparkle when addressing a classroom - all were borne of a system which guaranteed a secure salary, promotions and a pension. Take out the role of the benevolent employee i.e. the government and what remains of the entire apparatus?

Private individuals or companies who now have their own chains of branded hospitals can certainly be persuaded to play that role. But these corporate entities have their allegiance to the shareholders - money is their primary motivation, medical services are the means to earn that money. But even for these hospitals, the required number of beds for a medical college would mean having to throw their doors open. Away goes their exclusivity and the patients would start to look at another private hospital just 5 kms away.

Even if these practicalities are taken care of, there is no guarantee that the management of such colleges could keep the seats in the college out of the purview of reservation. The SEBC Act providing the most recent Maratha reservation makes it amply clear that the reservation will apply to all institutions except minority institutions.    

The definition of "educational institutes" to which the SEBC Act applies is as under, 

“educational institutions” includes the educational institutions in the
State of Maharashtra owned and controlled by the Government, which receives grant-in-aid from the Government, including a University established by or under the relevant Maharashtra Acts, including private educational institutions, whether aided or un-aided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30 of the Constitution of India.
Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause, the expression “private educational institutions” means institutions which have been given either prior to coming into force of this Act or thereafter, aid in the form of Government land at concessional rates or any other monetary concessions by the Government, or are recognized, permitted, supervised or controlled by the Government.

The only category excluded from reservation is minority educational institutions as per Article 30 of the Constitution. The issue of minority educational institutions as the solution for escaping the clutches of reservation is logically sound. Yet the minority should be either religious or linguistic in character. 

There is a landmark ruling which can be interpreted to mean that anything less than 50% of the aggregate can be termed minority. That way, all languages except Marathi, Hindi, English and Gujarati can be said to be linguistic minority languages. So people speaking Ahirani, Warhadi and other dialects of Marathi would be within their rights to start educational institutions and get benefits flowing from Article 30, but by definition these institutions would not be for open category. And it would be a herculean task to gather resources and manpower to take it through to the establishment of institutes.

The stringent but inclusive definition of educational institutes to which the SEBC reservation applies practically rules out Medical and other professional colleges because ultimately, inevitably, recognition by a government approved body is required for any professional degree. Without that, there is no post-graduation, no internship completion, no license to practice, no enrollment; the list goes on.

Government control is omnipresent. All aspects of our lives are controlled. The government, if not actually the owner of the land where the institute is to be built, can always say that it regulates the construction and design of the building. The government exercises control over the institution because it regulates the requisite licensing for operation of canteens in any place in India.

It is nonetheless desirable that efforts to create institutes where only merit matters should be created. Efforts can be made to seek affiliation to some foreign University or board, but the expenses would be higher than simply studying MBBS abroad.

Fighting the issue in Courts of law seems the only way out of the mess created by populist politics.

Adv. Shrirang Choudhary