Eswaran has an acre of dry land, on which he grows groundnut. Apart from cultivating his land, he also works on others' fields on daily wages. He finds regular work in Mekkarai and Achankoil villages that are 5 km away.

Though he does not have enough money to buy more land, he will not take a loan. He says with a smile, "Only big landowners can take bank loans, which are later written off by the government."

His younger brother Puthiasamy, a science graduate, works in the highways department in Coimbatore. Clued in to the goings-on around him, Sudalai adds with pride, "My brother got his job on merit and not through reservation."

And no, he has never thought of converting.

Puveneksha Duraippa is a 28-year-old civil engineer. He attended primary school at the nearby Vishwanathapuram MM School, and then went to high school in neighbouring Panpoli village. For secondary education he had to go to Senkottai, about 5 km from his village.

He earned a diploma in civil engineering from a polytechnic institute and then joined the Government Engineering College, Tirunelveli, to complete his graduation.

"I got my engineering seat thanks to reservation," he says.

His elder brother Maneckshaw is also an electronics and communications engineer. Puveneksha says their father, a revenue supervisor with the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, was inspired by Field Marshal S H F J Maneckshaw, hero of the 1971 India-Pakistan war, and hence the name.

The 29-year-old Maneckshaw first got a job as a police constable. He quit that job after passing a railway exam for the post of gang-man. He left that job when he cleared another exam for the post of assistant railway master, for which he is now undergoing training. Maneckshaw got the job through reservation.

Puveneksha admits: "Without reservation we would have become engineers, there are so many engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu, but we would not have got jobs easily."

He has also been trying for a job for himself. "I have applied for the post of police sub-inspector," he says.

He believes that reservations in the private sector will be the answer to his woes. "There are a lot of graduates like me sitting at home. This will change only if there is reservation in the private sector."

K Gopalakrishnan is a science graduate from the batch of 2002.

"I am going to study law next. I got my seat through merit and not reservation," he says with pride. He is working hard to build a home for his sisters in the village, and has no qualms about taking up a blue-collar job. He is a farmer with one acre of wetland and two acres of dry land, on which he grows paddy and groundnuts.

Gopalakrishnan has four siblings. His elder brother Sudalai, after completing his 10th standard, trained as a fitter and works in a private company. Another brother Lavan, who entered an Industrial Training Institute soon after school and finished a certified electrician's course, is still unemployed.

His elder sister Karpagavalli is married to a farmer in the village, while the other sister Paneerselvam is an arts graduate. She is also a trained computer tutor, and has found temporary employment as a clerk in a nearby college.

Says Goplakrishnan, "There is a lot of caste feelings in this district. Even in the private sector we do not get jobs easily. Only if reservation is based on the population ratio will it help."

Though they all complain that they are at a disadvantage because of belonging to the Scheduled Caste, none of them speaks about converting to another religion.

Also see: 'The country's wealth should be shared equally with Dalits'

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