Vaishnavi Kasturi - the Girl who Took on the IIMs and Dared to be Different 

Debanish Achom  / Meri News

October 9, 2007

• A profile of Vaishnavi Kasturi, the physically challenged girl from Bangalore who used the RTI (Right to Information) Act to force IIM-B(Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore) to reveal her CAT weightage 

Bangalore: Getting admission into the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) is tough but not an impossible task. But what was tough and impossible was to find out how exactly the hallowed business school evaluated students who sat through the Common Admission Test (CAT).

The public release of the information about how weightage is given to those who sit through CAT was made possible by the dedicated efforts of a bright student from Bangalore. She made IIM-B reveal how candidates were evaluated in CAT.

Vaishnavi Kasturi, a promising student from Bangalore got 89.29 percentile in the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2006 and the cut-off percentile being 86.42, she thought she will make it. But IIM-Bangalore refused to admit her. The CAT was ready to jump out of the bag. “Some tell me I’ve enjoyed my 15 minutes of fame. I don’t agree. The thing is at least people now know whether they should chain themselves to CAT,” she says.

“The information IIM-B gave to me clearly showed that high school scores are important. So somebody who scored very high in CAT and low in the school boards will be sad to find they didn’t get through,” she says, “Now the public knows the weightage and they can make better decisions,” she added.

“I’ve come out stronger now,” Vaishnavi says. “There are more important things in life than CAT,” she says. “Oh! I love Carnatic music,” her smile says it all. She was given the Award for Excellence by the Governor of Karnakata.

Vaishnavi suffers from low vision, also known as RP(Retinitis Pigmentosa). She was diagnosed with RP at the age of 8. She wrote the CAT under the ‘People with Disability’(PWD) category. And she wanted to know why she was not selected although she scored above the cut-off percentile.

“First we decided to meet the IIM Bangalore officials,” says her father, R K Kasturi. “When we asked them to tell us the methodology of judging candidates, they replied that it was a trade secret,” he says with bewilderment. “Nobody can run away with hiding education under the garb of being a trade secret,” he asserts.

Using the Right to Information Act (RTI), Vaishnavi asked the IIM-B to reveal “how they have evaluated her”. IIM-B replied by saying “it’s a trade secret,” again! By then it was too much. Questioning the IIM about the marks weightage and why it is not shared is necessary, says R K Kasturi.

“Vaishanavi’s rank in CAT was 19 out of 680 students under PWD category. Her ranking in 10th and 12th standard was different and hence she lost. This they refused to give officially which led to speculations,” he says. 

Finally, she went to the Central Information Commission, and the Commission directed IIM-B to release information regarding how those sitting in the high posts in the IIMs judge the lives of lakhs of candidates, some of who hinge their fate to CAT. IIM-B for the first time in 25 years put the information on their website. “I won this,” she says.

This has clearly revealed that CAT is not given much importance and IIM concentrates more on 10th and 12th scores. “But where is the comparison? Intelligence required to be successful at CAT and high school exams are two different yardsticks,” says R K Kasturi.

“I want to say that people must come forward to ask questions. Every time CAT results are declared, they should ask questions if they honestly feel dissatisfied,” says Vaishnavi. “What happens is that disabled people’s abilities are underestimated. Somebody bright in Maths may be forced to take Arts and become a telephone operator in the end just because he or she is blind or deaf,” she says.

Her father agrees. It’s the mindset of the parents and society as well that should change, he says. “Let physically challenged people do what they want. Don’t stop them,” he says.

Twelve blind students have appeared for CAT this year. The number is going to increase as more and more people become aware of the CAT process. “I love cricket too,” she says.