Other side of the Coin....

It's been seven days since the medical students went on a hunger strike in the national capital. But for a young student from one of the most backward districts in Maharashtra, the quota became a turning point in his life.Twenty-year-old Yashpal Jaware got to study medicine at the J J hospital in Mumbai because of the reservations for scheduled caste. He comes from Nandurbar, one of Maharashtra's poorest districts, which is notorious for malnutrition deaths.Against all oddsFor the son of a poor farmer from the Maharashtra caste, the odds were huge."The very first time I held a pen was in the fourth standard. Till then we wrote on a slate. I hardly learnt anything till the tenth standard, my mother said what's the point, there's never been any doctor in our community. Now I am the very first in my family to qualify," said Yashpal Jaware.After the tenth, he had to cycle 15 kilometres a day to get to the nearest science college, and even then, he could only study when he was done with farm chores.But the biggest hurdle were the power cuts at home."The biggest problem was that I couldn't study at night. There were power cuts. We only got power from 11 to 1," said Yashpal. Getting 85 per cent in his CET became the ticket to a quota seat. Coming to Mumbai meant a loan of Rs 50,000. Language barrierThe next big shock was coping with English. Yashpal is clear that quotas are the only leveller in an unequal society. "If the open category students study in convents and we study in primary schools in marathi or ashram shalas. How can we compete," he said But he says it's very unfair to say that those who get in through quotas sail through and graduate."Everyone has to get a minimum of 50 per cent to pass. It's not as if the reserved category students pass without studying and the open category fail," he added.As the anti-quota protests reach a near hysterical pitch, the other side of the story raises the question of whether the quotas and merit are polar opposites or can reservations help bring out the merit in those who didn't have much opportunity.

-------Extract From NDTV news-------