Maratha youth fear for future with reservation gone

PUNE The Supreme Court ruling cancelling reservations for the Maratha community in the state is expected to have a long-lasting impact on the educational sector, as well as on job opportunities for Maratha youth

PUNE The Supreme Court ruling cancelling reservations for the Maratha community in the state is expected to have a long-lasting impact on the educational sector, as well as on job opportunities for Maratha youth.

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The court also clarified that there will not be any impact on admissions to post-graduate medical courses that were granted till September 9, 2020.

Maratha youth are disappointed with the verdict. Shailesh Patil, a post-graduate student who also participated in Maratha Kranti Morcha’s protests, said, “After my post-graduation I was planning to apply for a government job and under this reservation was hoping to get it. This verdict will not only impact on us, but all forthcoming generations of Maratha community. Still there are lakhs of students in the state from the community who come from rural areas and giving them a boost is necessary through this reservation.”

Last year, Class 11 (first year junior college - FYJC) admissions were delayed by close to two months due to the reservation case going on in the court.

An interim stay given by the Supreme Court (SC) on the implementation of the quota for the Maratha community in jobs and education, saw the state education department stop the admission process for FYJC on September 9, 2020. It resumed from November 26, 2020.

Talking about the SC verdict Kuldeep Ambekar, a student and president of the Students Helping Hand organisation said, “It was expected that this reservation will get cancelled and now all the Maratha students are in great disappointment. We respect the SC judgment and we hope that state government will find a solution over this critical issue which is related to the careers of lakhs of students.”

Another student Pooja Thite said, “There are several post-graduate courses where fees are not affordable. There is a large number of students from the Maratha community who come from economically weaker families. I wanted to opt for higher education in computer engineering, but getting a good college and affordable fees is not possible now due to this reservation getting cancelled.”