DU Decides to Give Women a 1% Relief in Cutoff. Does That Help Gender Equality?

Perpetually embroiled in controversy, Delhi University has made headlines again by deciding to put a cap on cut-off relaxation for women. While its recent decision to reduce extra points to female applicants from a 1-5 percent range to just 1 percent received a lot of flak, we're of the opinion that this cap was a progressive move and, in an ideal world, there should be no blanket relaxation for women at the university level.

We're not talking about women from rural areas, lower castes, or economically marginalised sections. They definitely deserve a boost, owing to the tumultuous educational background they may have experienced before getting to this point. But when it comes to women who have already made it to the candidature stage of the prestigious Delhi University, they are already at a point where they can rely entirely on merit. Moreover, offering extra marks to able bodied, city-dwelling, cis-gender, high achieving, and well established female students goes completely against the idea of equality, and offering a platform to those who are deserving but are denied access.

In recent times, one of our establishment's priorities has been to promote women's education and ensure that they attend and stay in school and college, and avoid dropping out as far as possible. To lay the foundation for this, several schemes and plans have been chalked out in the past, right from setting up women's institutions to education schemes like 'Ladli.'

To really up the ante in making sure women get a quality education and don't drop out, maybe they need to think in terms of creating a safe, secure, and healthy environment for women in educational institutions. A relaxation in cut-offs is nothing more than a token allowance that is unnecessarily antagonising a deserving student who misses the cut because of it.

Today's high scoring students are a mixed bunch of ambitious girls and boys, and even a 1 percent difference is huge when it comes to the college of one's choice. If the same relaxation (or more) can instead be given to transgender people, economically marginalised students, or any other under-represented marginalised category, it would make a far better statement in terms of improving the education system.

It's high time the decision makers of the education system rethink their approach to a fair and egalitarian educational environment for students from every walk of life.