The Congress party Friday demanded the enactment of a law to enforce reservations in private educational institutions, as mandated under Article 15(5) of the Constitution of India.
Addressing a joint press conference, party’s SC, ST and OBC cell chairmen Rajinder Pal Gautam, Vikrant Bhuria, and Anil Jaihind alleged that the BJP government is deliberately denying higher education to students from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. “There is a conspiracy to deny higher and quality education to students belonging to the 90 percent population comprising SCs, STs, and OBCs,” said the Congress leaders.
“The BJP government is deliberately sitting over the amendment for the last eleven years,” they added.
The Congress party highlighted that the UPA government, led by Manmohan Singh, had amended Article 15 of the Constitution and introduced Article 15(5), enabling reservations for SC/ST/OBC students in private educational institutions. Although the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of Article 15(5), private institutions are not legally bound to provide reservations without a statute to enforce implementation.
Only 0.89 per cent of SC students, 0.53 per cent of ST students, and 11.16 per cent of OBC students are able to study in private educational institutions, according to the Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Digvijaya Singh.
There are 517 private universities in the country without reservation provisions and 78.5 per cent of degree colleges in the country are private and do not offer reservations.
The Congress leaders demanded the immediate enactment of a law to implement Article 15(5), emphasizing that the last eleven years have been the darkest period for SCs/STs/OBCs due to the government’s privatization policies aimed at denying reservation benefits.