Whenever one lists out the different ways through which
students can seek admission in Indian Universities, the ‘sports quota’ is
definitely not something which a lot of people would miss. Although at the
outset one would know that the sports quota is a reservation platform where a certain number of seats are allotted to sportspersons, there has always
been this mystery around how the sports quota has been formulated and
implemented throughout the country. This is because the concept of sports quotas is not as clear most of the other
forms of reservations present in Universities such as the Domicile or the Caste-based reservation systems.
There have been a number of cases in various courts
pertaining to the sports quota policy specific to the college and the legal
positions held numerous times by the higher judiciaries of this country with
regards to the object of the existence of sports-based reservation have been
similar. It is that in the case of reservation through sports quota, merit in
the assessment of their talent should be the main criteria for admission. Otherwise,
the relevance of sports excellence will cease to have any importance which is
the basis of the quota in Universities. If their merit in their respective field is not taken into account, there will be no incentive left for
sportsmen/sportswomen to excel in sports and very good sportsmen who have
devoted their maximum time in playing games would never be able to get
admission in the medical colleges, or the colleges requiring a very high academic threshold for admission.
There is no existing centralized or state-based framework
where one can draw a uniformity towards how the sports quota functions in the nation or a particular state. However, there have been a fairly well
functioning procedure in collegiate public universities such as the Delhi
University (DU) of New Delhi and the Anna University (Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission
(TNEA)) from Tamil Nadu.
Delhi University is a good example where there exists a proper system with accountability existing for the colleges under it. It has an allocation of 5% that is divided between sports and extra-curricular activities, the proportion of the split though depends on the decision of each college under the DU. Such decisions are usually taken on the basis of the sports played by that particular college in tournaments which is one of the important reasons behind the concept of sports quotas in Universities across the country. Each college forms a merit list based on online applications and only the ones who are there during the counseling and verification of certificates will be counted for admissions.
Colleges generally have
a list of eligibility criteria for the students such as a list of sports that
are allowed to be considered for the quota and the minimum level at which the
student should have played (district/state/national/international). Colleges
also hold trials to evaluate the students and filter the ones who will secure a
place in the college from the rest of the applicants. The option of trials and
eligibility criteria are usually left to the discretion of the university and
college. For example, DU colleges don’t conduct trials for sportspersons who
participated who have represented their country in sports and tournaments that
have been recognized under the Indian Olympics Association, Ministry of Youth
Affairs and Sports, or Affiliated games. However, DU conducts sports trials for
sportspersons who don’t fall under the above category by keeping a skill test,
game performance test, sports test, game fitness test, and more.
However, for colleges under TNEA, there are no sports trials conducted for the students. Instead, there is a point-based system for the candidates based on their cumulative achievements in sports with a certain number of points allotted to each level of the sport that they have played in. When it comes to attendance requirements, some colleges like Kerala University are quite liberal and accommodates shortages in attendance of sportspersons due to sports-related activities. Whereas there have been cases to the contrary in Calcutta University the most famous one being a prominent U-19 cricketer who had a shortage in attendance as he had to represent the country, wasn’t given any concession.
ISSUES IN THE CURRENT FRAMEWORK
1. Lack of a uniform system
The one thing that is most evident is that there is no
proper system in place which is responsible for determining the eligibility of
the student under the sports quota. There are only selective colleges that
even have sports quotas in the first place. Out of this number, there are only
a small number of colleges that release the eligibility criteria, the sports are taken into consideration, and the manner of evaluation, out to the public
beforehand and give the seats accordingly. These colleges are mostly Public
Universities and Government Aided Colleges. The remaining colleges have no
proper system of allotment and no accountability on whether they have selected
the aptly eligible students for the seats. Even in the Lok Sabha, the issue of
centralizing sports-quotas was only put forth once since 1999, and the Ministry of
Human Resource Development in 2006 declared that it had no such proposal to
centralize the sports quota admissions.
Although DU and Anna University decide to keep sports
quotas, Gujarat University has decided to scrap the quotas and provide a full
scholarship for applicants who have represented national and international
sporting events. It might be argued that it is the district and school players
are the ones would be in need of college admission more than the ones who have
already represented the nation as it would be safe to assume that their career
would be going in the direction of going further in their sport rather than
becoming an engineer or a doctor.
In Andhra Pradesh, although the Sports Authority of Andhra
Pradesh urged the State Government to increase the reservation from 2% to 5%,
in 2018, the Hyderabad High Court has prevented the admission under sports
quota in Medical, Engineering, and Agriculture courses in the state. In an
earlier judgment, it had also recommended a blanket ban on sports quotas
across the country, as it had no constitutional basis, the students were not
‘meritorious’, and there were many ‘insignificant games’ in the list of sports.
Hence, this variation of policies across the country provides an advantage for some sportspersons who fall in a certain category or live in a certain location, and is disadvantageous for sportspersons in other locations. This might call for a centralized policy and definite framework of sports quota, possibly through a constitutional amendment.
2. Exploitative practices
Many Universities that are not transparent with their sports quota policy, tend to use the reservation for corrupt practices. This is predominantly seen in private arts colleges that had a given number of seats for sportspersons but these seats were given to middle-men who were responsible for scouting not only for eligible sportspersons but also those who were able to pay additional donations to the college. Although a customary test and evaluation of achievements for these candidates would happen, the amount of dough potentially brought in by each candidate was also a major factor in their selection.
3. Lack of proper data
All of these issues have not been discussed very widely in
the media due to the lack of transparency and proper data regarding sports
quotas in India. Even this article was written through the data collected
through High Court judgments (mostly college-specific), Lok Sabha debates
(mostly relating to DU), and the occasional news articles that had reported
about this issue. The lack of a definite and transparent system along with the
underhanded and exploitative practices by officials have led to the prevention
of a strong information database available to the public. Only when the
government takes this as a centralized issue and forms a proper framework and
policy, all these issues will subside. This is necessary to fulfill the core
object of sports quota encouraging more students to take up sports more confidently
as such policy would only increase the chances of these budding sportspersons
to acquire quality higher education.
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