May 25, 2011
Four years after it introduced the policy of reserving seats for Dalit Christians in admissions, St. Stephen's College has decided to discontinue the quota from this year.
The college used to reserve 10 per cent seats for Christian students belonging to the SC/ ST and the physically handicapped categories.
This year, however, Christian students belonging to Scheduled Castes can no longer apply for admission under this quota. This 10 per cent reservation is now meant only for Scheduled Tribe and physically handicapped Christians.
Surprisingly, the college authorities have not publicised the decision, though the admission process at St. Stephen's begins on Wednesday.
"The college wasn't getting any applications from this category. Hence, it made no sense to continue with this quota. Since there are no applicants, we didn't announce or publicise this decision," said St. Stephen's tutor for admission, K. M. Mathew.
He said the decision was taken in consultation with the Supreme Council, the highest decision making body of the college.
Being a minority institution, St. Stephen's is allowed to follow its own admission procedure and also reserve up to 50 per cent of its seats for Christian students.
The college has exhausted this limit and has created various subcategories within the 50 per cent reservation.
The quota for Dalit Christians, which was introduced in 2007, was one of the subcategories.
"Apart from the lack of applications, the problem of document verification is also another reason behind the discontinuation of this reservation. Dalit Christian students need to produce their Baptism certificate and an SC certificate. It was difficult to verify the authenticity of these documents," a teacher of the college said.
Among other changes in the admission policy this year is the decision to discontinue the weightage given to a candidate's performance in Class X. Last year, the weightage for admission stood at 75 per cent for Class XII marks, 10 per cent for Class X marks and 15 per cent for the interview. Now, Class XII marks carry 85 per cent weightage while the interview carries 15 per cent.
The college has also replaced its old application forms with OMR forms.
These changes apart, the admission process and criteria remain the same as last year. The college will admit 400- odd students across different streams.
Forms and prospectus will be sold from May 25 till June 13. Candidates can also download application forms from the college website, www. ststephen's. edu.
The college will continue to keep the merit gap between the general category students and Christian candidates at 15 per cent. So, if the cut-off score for general students for, say, English ( Honours) is 95 per cent, then the cut- off for Christian applicants can't be less than 80 per cent.
i m sorry to comment that,if christian organisations are doing this,what we will except from others.
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