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Editorial
The merit privilege: examining dubious claims of merit in public health and public policy
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  • Published on: 5 September 2021
    Commentary on “The Merit Privilege” by Dr. Prashanth N Srinivas
    • Abha Arya, Assistant Professor Symbiosis Institute of Health Sciences
    • Other Contributors:
      • Raghupathy Anchala, Professor

    Since long, the debate on meritocracy has been in the academic circle which originated from academicians, researchers, professionals and students belonging to ‘lower and/or backward’ castes. However, not much attention was paid to such discussions by the privileged and elite majorly because of their vested interests associated with it or due to the fact that we considered this caste as an uneducated, uncivilized and voiceless community unless they are educated and speak for themselves their voice become a part of the politicization of caste system.

    This uncomfortable point is time and again raised by many on several instances like suicide of Rohith Vemula (Leonard, 2019: 52), hurling abuses by Prof Seema Singh to the marginalized caste students in IIT Kg (Datta, 2021), etc. however, meritocracy becomes a topic of intense discussion when a globally recognized political philosopher Michael Sandel put them into words and problematizing the way the elites think.

    Once again, the lateral entry in UPSC was criticised at various fronts ranging from students’ protests to policy researchers. The connection of meritocracy with public policy and public health is due to technocracies and the policy decisions which were not so fruitful in the recent past. However, this was the same danger which dissenters were warning the world. That reminds us of Avengers Endgame when Tony Stark said to Steve Rogers that we are Avengers and not “pre-vengers”.

    Similarly, scien...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.