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Ethnic Group in India Wins University-Enrollment
Quota After Violent Protests
By
Shailaja Neelakantan/NEW DELHI
Issue
cover-dated June 18, 2008
The state government of Rajasthan,
in northwestern India, has agreed to reserve 5 percent of university
seats and jobs in its public institutions for a caste group
called the Gujjars, bringing to an end a monthlong, often violent
protest by the group that led to the deaths of more than 40
people, the Indian Express reported today.
The Gujjars are a seminomadic ethnic
group of cattle herders and farmers in Rajasthan and other northern
Indian states who compose 8 percent of its population. They
said they could not compete with other groups classified as
“backward classes” in Rajasthan that have become more prosperous
thanks to land reforms.
The caste group agreed to the new quotas
— allotted under a special category — even though they were
not granted their demand for a change in their constitutional
status. The Indian government already reserves 27 percent of
seats in all public higher-education institutions for “other
backward classes” and 22.5 percent of university seats for “scheduled
castes and tribes,” Indians once known as “Untouchables” who
suffered the most under the caste system.
It is not clear yet whether the new
quotas will be in addition to the existing ones.
“This quota would not have any adverse effect on the present
reservation system in the state,” said Vasundhara Raje, Rajasthan’s
chief minister, according to the newspaper. “There is a necessity
to give special support to some sections,” she added.
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