St Stephens opens doors to Dalit Christians

ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL

President: Dr. Joseph D’souza Secretary General: Dr. John Dayal

Address for Correspondence:
johndayal@vsnl.com
Mobile: 09811021072
Website: http://www.aiccindia.org

PRESS STATEMENT
NEW DELHI, 14 JUNE 2007

CHRISTIAN COUNCIL HAILS `HISTORIC’ ST STEPHENS QUOTA FOR DALIT CHRISTIANS; WELCOME NEW CATHOLIC EDUCATION POLICY FOR MARGINALISED

All India Christian Council president Dr Joseph D’souza and Secretary General Dr John Dayal have welcomed as ‘historic’ the move by the St Stephen’s College to give preferential admissions to brilliant students from the Dalit Christian community in the prestigious institution of higher learning.

St Stephen’s College, they noted, has become the first Church-constituted Institution to take this long-due affirmative action which will go far in undoing prejudices against Christians from the erstwhile depressed classes and scheduled castes in north and south India.

Dr D’souza and Dr Dayal have also welcomed the Education Policy announced by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India which reaffirms the commitment of the Church to the education of the marginalised.

“These revolutionary measures will go a long way in the empowerment of 60 per cent of the Indian Christian community who had fallen out of the development net of the church and were also ignored by the State,” the Christian Council leaders said.

These steps are also in keeping with the recent recommendations of the Justice Rangnath Misra National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities which recently said Dalit Christians [and Dalit Muslims] must be given scheduled caste status and privileges given to Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Dalits. “Religion cannot come in the way of empowerment and development of a people subjugated for three millennia,” the Council said.

Dalit Christians and Muslims are in the Supreme Court through a PIL seeking Scheduled caste status denied them by a government order that communalised affirmative action and reserves it for favoured religion.

The Council called upon both the State and the Church to ensure quality education through well equipped schools and modern curricula in districts, towns and Dioceses where Dalit Christians were in reasonable numbers. This will also be in keeping with the spirit of the recommendations made for the Muslim community by the Prime Minster’s Special committee on Minorities headed by Justice Rajendra Sachchar which gave its report some months ago.

Associates of the All India Christian Council already run scores of high quality English-medium schools in several states in India and are planning more schools.

“The move by St Stephen’s college Officer on Special Duty Rev Valson Thampu will help remove the impression that the Church runs only elite schools and colleges for the rich and powerful without concern for the poor,” the Council said.

Dr D’souza and Dr Dayal also challenged statements that the affirmative action for Dalit Christians will in any way dilute academic standards for which the historic Institution is noted. St Stephens’ doors are now open to the brilliant students of the Dalit community who otherwise find such institutions beyond their reach for various reasons. It will sharpen the competition among the children of the elite who had so far found it easy to get admission.”

It may be recalled that yesterday Rev. Valson Thampu had announced that 40 per cent of the seats in St Stephen’s College will be reserved for Christian students as against the earlier 32 per cent and 25 per cent of these will be kept aside for Dalit Christians. Ten per cent of the total 400 seats will now be effectively reserved for Dalit Christians as per the new reservation formula that will be implemented from the coming academic session. The college, that has around 400 seats, will also have 15 per cent reservation for the students of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, disabled and children of defence personnel killed in war, while five per cent seats will be meant for the sportspersons.

Released to the media for Publication

St. Stephens announces 40 pc quota for Christians
New Delhi, June. 13 (PTI): [The Hindu]
The prestigious St. Stephens College here today announced a new reservation formula for Christians, introducing a separate quota for Dalit Christians and enhancing the overall share of seats earmarked for the community to 40 per cent.
Now, 40 per cent of the seats in the college will be reserved for Christian students as against the earlier 32 per cent and 25 per cent of these will be kept aside for Dalit Christians, Principal of the college Rev. Valson Thampu told reporters today.
Ten per cent of the total 400 seats will now be effectively reserved for Dalit Christians as per the new reservation formula that will be implemented from the coming academic session.
"The quest for social justice prompted the college to have the reservation system in place. Besides, the bulk of the Christians in North India belong to the Dalit community and they can now take advantage of the facility," Thampu said.
The college, that has around 400 seats, will also have 15 per cent reservation for the students of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, disabled and children of defence personnel killed in war, while five per cent seats will be meant for the sportspersons.
About 40 per cent of the seats will be filled up on the basis of merit from the general category.
NEW DELHI: [Agencies]
Despite strong opposition from faculty members, St Stephen’s College will reserve 10% seats for Dalit Christians this year. The cut-off for students from the category will be 60% — the lowest in the college, and usually applicable only to Sanskrit — for all courses. There will also be some financial assistance extended to them.
The 40% quota for Christians — which will include the 10% seats reserved for Dalit Christians — will now be filled up ‘‘at all costs’’ and for that the college is ready to give students from the community more than the usual 15% relaxation in cut-off. However, to allay fears of faculty members that the elite institution’s academic standards may be compromised, the college proposes to start a regular ‘‘merit audit’’.
‘‘We will explore all avenues to make the stint of Dalit Christian students in the college burden-free. But we are yet to decide whether that should be in the form of scholarships or fee waivers. All financial assistance will be need-based,’’ said the college’s officiating principal, Valson Thampu.
As per the admission policy cleared by the Supreme Council of the college on Tuesday, 40% seats are to be reserved for Christian students — and mandatorily filled — out of which 25% will be reserved for Dalits of the same category, that is, 10% of the total seats. Forty per cent will be reserved for non-minority groups and 15% for underprivileged non-minority students, including SCs, STs, OBCs, wards of war victims and physically challenged students. The remaining 5% will be reserved for admission through the sports quota.
This year, for the first time, the college will admit at least 40 Dalit Christians out of a total of 400 students to be admitted to courses at the undergraduate level. Christian students who qualify on merit will also be counted in the 40% quota.
In 1992, when the college got minority status, it was directed by the apex court to reserve at least 50% seats for Christians. However, it has so far been able to admit only 30-32% students from the category, with 70% seats open to general category students who are admitted solely on the basis of merit.
The latest proposal will cut general category seats by 30%, leaving only 196 seats up for grabs.’ It is now mandatory for us to fill the 40% seats meant for Christian students. If the quota doesn’t get filled by providing the usual relaxation in the cut-off by 15%, we will lower the cut-off further,’’ said Thampu. The 15% relaxation given to SC/ST students till last year will continue this year. All candidates though will need to appear for interviews regardless of their caste status, Thampu added.
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Stephen’s faculty members object increase in quota

Pallavi Singh
New Delhi, June 11 [Times of India]
: THE meeting called to discuss the new admission policy at St Stephen’s College led to no consensus on Monday after its faculty objected to the proposal to reserve more than 50 per cent seats.
The policy, formulated by Officer on Special Duty Rev. Valson Thampu who is officiating as St Stephen’s principal, proposes to increase the quota for Christians from 30 to 40 per cent. The policy proposes 10 seats be reserved for ‘Dalit Christians’.
With this, the number of seats available to general category students is set to come down by 40.
The proposal also sets aside 20 per cent seats for ‘other categories’: 5 per cent for sports quota and 15 per cent for SC/ST, disabled and children/widows/wives of soldiers killed or disabled. Sources said faculty members, especially Heads of Department, objected to the idea of reserving more than half the seats. “We don’t want the college to disturb 50 per cent of seats open to general category students,” said a faculty member who was part of the meeting. “Our argument was that the college must not take regressive steps that dilute its excellent academic record.”
Objection was also raised on the college prospectus for this year carrying no mention of the proposed policy for students. “This matter was raised by a few teachers,” said Prof Vinod Chowdhury, media advisor to the principal. “But they were told that our prospectus never carried any details on reservations, so why (include them) now?”
The policy that invited objection from several teachers could not get a unanimous nod from the 33 teachers present even after Rajshekhar Rao, legal advisor to the college, discussed with them the probable legal implications of the policy.
“There was no voting on the policy, nor was any resolution passed,” Chowdhury said. “After a discussion for about two hours, we found that though there was no fundamental objection, concerns were expressed about maintaining academic excellence of the college. The teachers have been asked to submit their objections, if any, by 1 pm on Tuesday.”
Meanwhile, the college also put up a notice in its staff room, asking faculty members to not talk to the media. The policy is expected to be tabled at the college’s Supreme Council meeting on Tuesday for final approval.