One per cent seats in all State-run universities in Karnataka will be reserved for girl children of Devadasis and victims of sexual assault, as per an order issued by the Higher Education Department.
The order asks all the universities to enforce reservation from the 2019-2020 academic year in all undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The government’s decision came after an NGO- Odanadi Seva Samsthe wrote a letter to the government seeking reservation for sexually exploited. The NGO, based in Mysore, works for the rescue and rehabilitation of sexually exploited and trafficked women and children.
Based on the current reservation for the victims of sexual exploitation in University of Mysore (UoM), the NGO had urged the government to provide academic reservation, across the state.
Currently, students from Odanadi Seva Samsthe are being admitted in the UoM with a 50% discount on their fees. Every year, since the 2011-12 academic year, two candidates for undergraduate programmes and one candidate for postgraduate programmes gets admission to the university.
No Criteria Defined For Availing Reservation
However, the government has not specified the criteria on how to avail the reservation. The implementation will be a difficult task for the state-run universities.
Talking to The Hindu, a Vice-Chancellor of a State-run university said, “We will have to clarify with the government on the criteria to avail this reservation. We will also write to UoM and ask them to share how they implemented this reservation.”
Stating the move as a “first of its kind”, K.S. Vimala, State Vice-President, Janawadi Mahila Sangathane, said, “If this has to be implemented in letter and spirit, then universities will have to ensure that rules and regulations laid down by universities for availing this benefit are simple. Universities should try and obtain documents themselves from the respective authorities instead of pressuring victims to do the same.”
