CNN-IBN

New Delhi, May 14: Will the proposed increase in reservations in elite institutes bring merit and socio-economic backwardness on a common ground?

The results for 2005 Civil Services examination seems to break some myths.

In the merit list for Civil Services, 48 candidates from the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Schedules Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes have made it through the General Category.

Out of the 210 selected candidates in the General Category, 48 of them belonged to the reserved classes.

These students competed on the basis of merit and did not seek the reservation benefit.

Interestingly, all SC/ST and OBC candidates who cleared the mains in the General Category belong to families who have traditionally taken advantage of the reservation policy to bag government jobs.

"People who got government job on the basis of reservation are the most competent. Their children seem not to be suffering from any economic or educational backwardness. They are doing well in civil services," V P Gupta of Rao Study Centre, a coaching institute for civil services, says.

Apparently, children whose parents had enjoyed the reservation benefit earlier do not suffer from any kind of social or educational backwardness and have competed well with the other students in the General Category and did not seek the reservation privilege.

Thus it becomes clear that children who were groomed well and were able to receive quality education have made it to the top without using the reservation quota available to them.

These students are not only competing in the general category, but are also making it difficult for those backward class students who are using reservation benefits for the first time.