Why Reservation is illogical and unscientific

The following is a hard hitting article written by Dr. R.S.K Sinha - one of the best known physicians in the country today. The article illustrates why Reservation is illogical and unscientific. Published with special permission from Dr. Sinha.

Read on...

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Place fifty pieces (50%) of tasty musk-melons with fifty pieces (50%) of large, red pulpy water-melons in a sack. These melons will be transformed into the large and delicious water-melons after some time since both belong to same melon species. It only needs recitation of mantras like "equal opportunity" by any political priest of country. Isn’t it simple? Ask any present day vote seeker, they can do it overnight!

Similarly, since all human beings belong to a common species, leaders suggest to pack them together in IITs, IIMs, Medical Institutions and recite the "mantra" of equality to produce the worthiest of professionals in India. The common man in India has been tricked like it for several decades by country's leaders and law-makers. We can not accept such ridiculous tricks anymore for uplifting the plight of SC, ST and now the OBCs. There is no instant formula for doing so. Reservation is no answer to the problem.

Patho-physiology of Intelligence
The Malady Human intelligence is multifactorial in development. It is a product of one's genetic configuration and the hard work performed. The hypothesis does not require much explanation. We know that every sibling or child of intelligent people may not be equally intelligent in spite of their absolutely common environment. Similarly an individual can be extremely intelligent in spite of adverse environment.

The Evidence
Many researchers working on intelligence use a psychometric definition for intelligence, termed "general mental ability" or the "g factor". This concept originated from the work of Sir Francis Galton and Charles Spearman(1) of the London School of psychology. Today many psychometricians worldwide accept the theory of general mental ability. According to this theory, on average, those who do well on one mental test also are likely to do well on other mental tests.

Arthur Jensen points to the statistical and biological realities of the g factor. The correlation of g with the overall size of brain, its glucose metabolic rate during problem solving, the complexity and speed of brain waves, as well as estimates of heritability point towards genetic influence(2).

The g factor has a normal distribution in the general population, suggesting g is probably a product of several genes that interact with the environment. Moreover, although g correlates with the parental value, it has a tendency to be closer to the population mean, suggesting a regression to the mean. These observations suggest that some genetic variants that influence g will vary between populations rather than within populations.

Graphics: Jen

Studies show a moderate increase in g over time in developed countries, correlating with improvements in nutrition, health and education. Environmental conditions such as socio-economic status have been shown to play a significant role in intelligence. A study by Wahlsten(3) showed that children transferred from a home with low socio-economic status to a home with high socio-economic status improved their test scores. It has been reported that heritability for intelligence increases during development, resulting in heritability as high as 80% in adulthood while there is also some evidence that heritability might be lower in adulthood than in childhood(4).

No place for caste and creed
In simple terms, genetic composition is a conglomerate of various genomes with which an individual is born. On the other hand, capability to perform hard work is dependent on good health and better socio-economic environment. Good health is in turn dependent on good nutrition, hygienic surroundings and prevention from various communicable and non-communicable diseases. Wealth obviously is required to gather resources to access the wisdom. Genomic configuration, hard work, good health and money are, therefore, the only factors which influence intelligence of any individual. Reassigning caste, religion or reservations etc. thus have no role in the development of intelligence of a person or society.

Remedy
Except the genetic structure every other factor is modifiable. Even genomic build-up of a person can be modified over the generations. A social revolution in form of promoting inter-cast marriages and preventing consanguineous relations can help in genomic restructuring of the society. The technology of fetal DNA manipulation will be a reality some day.

Governments have failed to focus on the health needs of the underprivileged society as indicated by miserable health budget allocations year after year. Even simple measures like universal iodinization of salt to prevent Iodine Deficiency Diseases (IDD) - a measure cause of deteriorating IQ; have faced tough resistance from politicians’.

No long term action plan is in sight as regards financial support to these underprivileged. Ad-hoc sanctions of miserable unemployment allowances to these youths is a typical political and vote bank gimmick. Individual leaders concerned with nation building and upliftment of the downtrodden can correct it easily. They need to simply invest their huge personal assets, mostly black accumulated through their 'public service', for generating exclusive employment for the OBCs and SC / ST. It is a common knowledge that the cumulative assets of all the sitting and ex - ministers, parliamentarians, and legislators can alone fund several annual budgets of the country.

Reservation is illogical and unscientific
It's a pity that even after over half a century, no leader in independent India has a vision in this direction. So far, their vision had been tubular in improving their own lot. There is absolutely no logic or scientific basis for reservation in education and employment as a measure to alleviate the pathetic conditions of underprivileged.

Politicians and national leaders, especially the octogerians having a very limited productive life span should now at least have a logical approach to the problem. Reservation on one hand will only destroy the natural adaptive biological process of acquiring intelligence amongst underprivileged and on the other hand will create a class of 'unemployed intelligent youth (UIY)'.

Obviously, the middle class intelligentsia having limited resources will be the most effected group by the reservation in professional institutions. Suddenly the constitution is being re-written to withdraw the right of these meritorious students to higher education for which specified number of general seats had been created in the higher educational institutions of the country.

The future of the nation and its security will be under bigger threat by the most disgruntled UIY. The octogerian leaders should realize that they may be harming the nation with their attempt to achieve an extremely short lasting self-ambition like becoming the next PM. However, they will be a looser with the sufferings of their own progeny if they live long enough to witness. Create a caste-less society and creep the crop of intelligent Indians. The only other manner in which this goal can be achieved is by extending economic support to the underprivileged without tagging them as "quota fellow" which isolates them everywhere.

Melon story
The same sack is over stuffed with all kinds of melons on suggestion of some politicians. At destination it contained well preserved but fewer robust water-melons with completely decayed musk-melons. Such a loss was definitely avoidable if they were packed separately with proper planning and transported to the consumer market in their best form and quality.

Dr. R. S. K. Sinha New Delhi

Acknowledgment:
The article is based on the topic "The Genetic Basis of Intelligence" by Mr. Farnoos Tayyari and graphics by Mr. Jen (Source:bioteach.ubc.ca)

References:

1. Miele F. What is intelligence? In: intelligence, race, and genetics. Oxford, UK. Westview Press, 2002.
2. Spearman C. (1904). General intelligence objectively determined and measured. American Journal of psychology. 15, 201-292
3. Plomin R and Spinath FM. (2004). Intelligence: genetics, genes, and genomics. Journal of personality and social psychology. 86(1), 112-129.
4. McGue M, Bouchard TJ, Jr., Iacono WG, & Lykken DT. Behavioral genetics of cognitive ability: A life-span perspective. In R. Plomin & G. E. McClearn (Eds.), Nature, nurture, and psychology (pp. 59-76). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1993.
5. Finkel D, Pedersen NL, McGue M, & McClearn GE. (1995). Heritability of cognitive abilities in adult twins: Comparison of Minnesota and Swedish data. Behavior Genetics. 25, 321-431.
6. http://www.bioteach.ubc.ca/MolecularBiology/Intelligence/index.html

(c) Copyright Dr. R. S. K Sinha. All rights reserved.
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