Mumbai, July 28 (IANS) Educator and social activist Milind Chandwani, who is married to actress Avika Gor, has shared his perspective on the ongoing reservation debate.
Drawing from his personal experiences as a student and his years of teaching children from underprivileged communities, Milind highlighted the importance of equal educational opportunities and access to resources for every individual. Sharing his video on Instagram, he wrote, “This isn’t an anti-reservation reel. It’s not a pro-reservation reel either. It’s a pro-education reel. I’ve seen this issue from both sides—as a CAT aspirant and as someone who spent 5 years teaching children from low-income communities.”
“Maybe the question isn’t “Should reservation exist?” Maybe the question is… “Who actually needs help, and how do we build an education system where one day, nobody needs reservation at all?” Let’s discuss respectfully. We owe that much to the next generation.”
In the video, Milind Chandwani could be heard saying, “Bro, 98.5 percentile, what have you done? This is what my friend told me when he got IIM calls at 58 percentile and I didn’t even get 98.5. It’s 2013. And to be honest, this friend didn’t need it. He used to come from a middle-class family, I used to come from a middle-class family. But I had it, so why not use it? To be honest, I used to feel really bad after seeing all this.”
“But on the other side, when I went to Teach for India and became a fellow, a teacher and when I started working with the children of government schools, I saw such children who needed this reservation and it was very beneficial for them. But they didn’t understand how to use this reservation, what is the benefit of it, what is the work of it.”
“So now I am not saying that every person who uses the reservation comes from that category which he doesn’t need. Many people use it who need it. But a lot of people who need it don’t even know how to use the reservation.”
Milind Chandwani went on to state, “So, I don’t know if I am in favour of this caste-based reservation system or I am in opposition to it, I don’t know. But if we have to remove it, then we have to give equal opportunities to every child who doesn’t have equal opportunities whose background comes from lower-income communities, we have to give equal opportunities to that child, we have to give better education, we have to give equal exposure so that when they finally come to the job market or in the competition exams, they can fight for equality.
“Then you can think of removing it. At this time, there is so much disparity in this country, the opportunities that a person gets, so I don’t know what is right and what is wrong.”
–IANS
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