When we are talking about inclusive pedagogy and its usefulness for an individual learner…..great! and its really useful in many ways. One aspect of inclusiveness in academic institutions is reservation based on cast or religion. This may not be an issue to be frowned upon in global context, but recently in India it has become a major source of controversy!

It is needless to mention there is already enough competition to get into top notch engineering or medical schools, add to that the “quota ” system which reserves upto 50% seats based on various casts. In the first place, reservation of seats for certain unprivileged section of the society is a really good example of an inclusive academic environment. However, having 50% of the total seats reserved is something else!! A large section of students who does not belong to so called unprivileged casts consider themselves “unprivileged” under this scenario.

A recent article depicts the situation quite well

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/is-it-time-to-retire-indias-quota-system/

So, while we all embrace the benefits of an inclusive environment in academia, may be it is a good idea to just back up a little and ponder for a while about its adverse effects as well. Also, to what extent  such inclusiveness is implemented should also be examined.