The clerk behind the counter displayed absolute apathy towards this persons need and urgency. On the first visit, the clerk had told him without even looking up, that it was not ready yet and to check back a few days later. On the second visit, the student requested the clerk to at least check the 'out-box' where he could see stacks of similar certificates but was sent off again. On the third visit, the student had no recourse but to suggest that he would have to file an official complaint. At this point, the clerk laughed and give him some version of, 'try what you will'.
This clerk was sure that nothing would put his job at risk. This is probably the single biggest malaise that inflicts government departments. A number of government-job applicants vie for those jobs precisely because it is one of the rare places where one has authority without responsibility. To make matters worse, they are entitled to the next promotion after three or five years.
I have often wondered, if the sense of entitlement is higher amongst people who did not have to fight as hard for the job. I am tempted to believe that this is true when nepotism is at play. A person acquiring a job because an uncle pulled strings to get him there is likely to be a little more confident about the stickiness of his position and therefore less likely to worry about delivering performance. I wonder if affirmative action in the US has caused a similar fallout.
1 comment:
There will never be a perfect solution..but to claim that affirmative action creates entitlement seems..just wrong. I have long been a supporter of affirmative action (like you, I dont gain to benefit from it). This is mostly because, like you pointed out, the the formal and informal ecosystems for kids without privilage and kids with privilage are so vastly different, the ones without will never ever be able to catch up without the support of affirmative action. I have seen it at play in my home - I employ a girl who goes to college during the day and stays with us at night. She is a smart girl..not brilliant, but certainly above average..of probably similar calibre as most of the 'average' kids one met in high school. Unlike kids of educated parents, however, she lost 3 years of her study life, because the school she studied in assumed that she would fail her 10th (she didnt) and threw her out of school. Her illiterate parents did not know their options, and so, after faltering, she eventually cleared her 10th grade (1st attempt). Again, because of certain misteps that educated parents would never make, she missed getting admitted into 11th immediately after she finished 10th. Her younger sister, a brilliant kid, cleared 10th with 73% marks, in circumstances that were truly remarkable (No money for tuitions, father passed away, mother worked in a different city and both older siblings living in a different city for work.) She lived at home alone with an old grandmother for one year and completed her 10th. Which middle/upper middle class kid faces the same obstacles ? It is only fair that both these kids get some credit via affirmative action that gives them a fair chance at life. The problem with affirmative action in India, however, is that it is tied intricately with the caste system. You need to belong to certain castes to qualify for the quotas. And it is not enough to belong, you need evidence in the form of a caste certificate. The caste certificate is a big racket where the already poor are made to cough up thousands of rupees and made to run around in circles before getting a certificate that certifies them as belonging to a backward community. It is only then that they are eligible for the seats under affirmative action. The irony here is that the truly truly poor and disenfranchised do not have the money or the paperwork necessary to get this caste certificate. My dhobi's daughter is one such sad case. She cleared her 12th std in the first attempt, but her illiterate dad had no clue how to get a caste certificate. Therefore, In spite of being deserving of a reserved seat, she couldnt apply for one. She ended up competing in the 'open category' with kids that came wealthy families - kids like yours and mine. Net result, she ended up in a really bad college where the teaching was terrible, and inspite of being determined to study, she flunked her 1st year. Her future now looks grim. The only way to pass is to go for expensive, unaffordable, tuitions. Her only other alternative is to drop out. Having seen all these examples up close, I firmly believe that affirmative action is necessary. But it should be based on criteria of parental literacy and parents' economic status. Ofcourse this too wont be a perfect solution, what with the rich trying to game this system too, but atleast it will be a start.
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