When quota system in job started

Staff Correspondent
The student movement across the country took a different dimension in 2018 demanding reform of the quota system in government jobs. At that time the government was forced to cancel the quota system. However, in 2021, when the children of some brave freedom fighters petitioned the High Court, the quota came back again through a judgment on June 5.
After that, the students of different universities of the country are united again in canceling the quota. They started the movement on July 1. This movement is now spreading in different areas of the country.
The history of quota system in government jobs is quite long. However, although it started from the British period, its exact time is not known.
During the British period, despite Indians being talented, the British got more jobs. Since Indians are new in education, backward in employment, and lower in status, discrimination is created. Due to this discrimination, the country was partitioned in 1947. But in 1952, they realized that the aristocrat families of Pakistan had become the new landlords. It was against this deprivation that the country had to be freed by a liberation war.
Quota system was in place in various categories of jobs since independence. In October 2018, the Ministry of Public Administration issued a circular canceling the quota in the government jobs of the ninth to 13th grade (first and second class) in the face of the movement of students and job seekers demanding quota reform.
According to official data, after independence from 1972 to 1976, 20 percent of the posts were recruited on the basis of merit. The remaining 80 percent of the posts were appointed on quota. In 1976, recruitment on merit was increased to 40 percent. In 1985, 45% merit based recruitment rule was introduced for first and second class posts. The remaining 55 percent are recruited through priority quotas.
This priority quota includes 30 percent freedom fighters, 10 percent women, 10 percent district quota and 5 percent ethnic minorities. Later, the rule of filling 1 percent of the posts with disabled candidates was introduced and the total quota stood at 56 percent. From the beginning there was a quota of freedom fighters. Later, freedom fighter’s children and then grandchildren were added to this quota.
After reviewing the data, it was found that there were many vacancies in the quota. At one stage it was decided that if suitable candidates are not found in the quota, it will be filled from the merit list.
In 2018, the Bangladesh General Student Rights Conservation Parishad started a movement demanding quota reform to 10 percent. At one stage of the movement, the government abolished quotas for government jobs in grades 9 to 13 (Class I and II) that year. However, quotas remain in place for Class III and IV jobs. These two categories have some quotas including pets, Ansar-VDP.
This time the issue of quota has come into discussion in view of the judgment of the High Court. After the final hearing of a writ, on June 5, the High Court ruled that the circular canceling the quota of Freedom Fighter in the recruitment of ninth to 13th grade posts was invalid. The state applied for a stay of the judgment, which came up in the chamber court on June 9. On that day, the Chamber court fixed the petition for hearing on July 4 before the full bench of the Appellate Division.
On this day, the six-member Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hasan did not suspend the decision declaring the circular invalidating the Freedom Fighter quota in the case of direct recruitment (grades 9 to 13). The hearing of the application filed by the state party seeking stay of the verdict given by the High Court has been adjourned. The matter is now pending in court.
However, the students and job aspirants continued their agitation demanding the reinstatement of the circular issued by the government by canceling the quota system.