New Delhi: Such is the poor representation of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Castes (OBC) in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) that some of these premier institutions do not have even a single faculty member from these categories.
Sample this: Of the 784 sanctioned faculty posts in 18 IIMs, just two are from the ST community, according to data submitted in Parliament by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) in December.
The situation is no better for SCs, who have only eight faculty members while there are 27 members from the OBC category. Around 590 of the posts are occupied by those from the general category while the remaining have not been filled.
Together, the SCs, STs and OBCs make up just 6 per cent of the total present faculty members in the IIMs.
The situation at IITs is equally grim.
Of the 8,856 sanctioned faculty strength, 4,876 are from the general category, 329 are OBCs, 149 are SCs and a mere 21 are from the ST community. In effect, across 23 IITs, including new and old, only 9 per cent of the current faculty are either SCs, STs or OBCs.
The figures come amid serious concern that social inclusion could take a further hit with the new University Grants Commission (UGC) order directing colleges to hire department-wise as opposed to institution-wise. The new roster system is expected to affect the reservation formula in educational institutions.
The Constitution mandates that educational institutions should ensure 15 per cent reservation for SCs, 7.5 per cent for STs and 27 per cent for OBCs among their faculty members.
According to the rules, however, technical institutions such as the IITs and IIMs can hire from the general category if they don’t find eligible candidates for the positions.
The premier institutes use this ruse, arguing that there is no lack of will on their part and it is just that they don’t find eligible candidates from the three categories.
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Some institutes don’t have any SC, ST or OBC faculty
Of the 23 IITs, 15 — including the IITs at Mumbai, Kanpur and Kharagpur — have no ST faculty at all. IIT Mandi has no SC faculty while two other IITs — at Goa and Dharwad — have no faculty belonging to the OBC category. SCs and STs are just 2.5 per cent of the total faculty pool.
The IIMs, which recently became autonomous, are even worse when it comes to adhering to the reservation norms. Most of them don’t have a single scheduled caste faculty member.
Of the 18 IIMs that shared data with the government (barring IIM Ahmedabad and Indore), 16 did not have a single ST faculty member and 12 did not have any representation from the SC category. Seven of the IIMs had no OBC faculty. The SC, ST faculty are just 1.5 per cent of the total faculty pool.
“IITs and IIMs hire SC, ST and OBC faculty at the entry level only,” a senior HRD Ministry official said. “They need to advertise for positions. If they don’t find suitable candidates, then they can take others.”
Lack of qualified candidates, say IIT authorities
Authorities at the IITs blame the lack of “qualified” candidates for the dismal numbers.
“The reason for the less number of people from the reserved category in IITs is that there isn’t enough of a pool of people to hire from,” a faculty member from IIT Kanpur said. “First of all there are very few PhDs anyway who are eligible, and among that pool, the number of reserved category candidates is even lesser.”
He added that the IITs also have relatively stringent hiring norms.
“IITs do not increase the gap between required qualification for the general category and the reserved category,” he said. “If a general category person needs to score 10 points, a reserved category person will need to score no less than 8 points.”
Another faculty member from an IIT added, “Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe members complain that IITs do not admit PhDs from SC and ST category and it leads to less faculty in belonging to the reserved category but that is not the case. We cannot let go of merit when it comes to PhDs.”
Dean Faculty, IIT Delhi, Sudipto Mukherjee agreed that there is a shortage of reserved category faculty. He, however, told ThePrint that there have been special drives to recruit them.
“There is a shortage of faculty and we continue to have several vacancies at present. Though we have many applications with PhD, they do not seem to meet standards expected by the appointment authorities,” Mukherjee said.
“I do not see any special problems in recruiting SC/ST faculty. We have also run special drives in the past to recruit them.”
A similar problem in IIMs
Congress MP Rajeev Gowda, who has taught at IIM Bangalore and is aware of the nuances of faculty hiring, told ThePrint: “IIMs do not practice discrimination, however, there is a pipeline challenge. We need more people from the SC, ST and OBC category to qualify for the job.”
Dipak Malghan, associate professor of public policy at IIM Bangalore, published a paper on social inclusion in the elite management institutions in 2017. In the paper, co-authored with Sidharth Joshi, Malghan argues that the “diversity deficit at IIMs is a ‘wicked problem’, but one that should not be wished away”.
One of the reasons for the lack of diversity, according to the paper, is that the doctoral programmes in these institutes do not have a stated policy on diversity.
“The doctoral programmes at IIMs serve as crucibles where future faculty members are forged. A majority of these programmes do not have a stated policy on diversity or affirmative action,” read the paper titled Faculty Diversity at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs): A Preliminary Snapshot.
“There is definitely a lack of reserved category faculty in IIMs and they mostly blame it upon not finding a suitable candidate,” said a faculty member at one of the IIMs, who did not wish to be named. “But if it’s actually a lack of will to hire or a lack of candidates, they will never really reveal.”
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Diversity and cast,??please grow up, diversity should mean skill set, please stop treating everything by cast, don’t distroy institutions because of cast thoughts, all should be treated equeal at highest level and best one should be in.
What kind of reasoning are you applying? I am shocked to see that even the journalists are acting like a politician. If you truly wants to increase this ratio then ask you agency to take it as your CSR measure(if you do that) to adopt certain SC/ST candidates and guide them through out their career and make them able to fight on an equal turf. That was the vision Nehru or Gandhi Ji might have had.
Would you like to an operation with someone who has come with a quota and doesn’t have required skills to do that.
This way you can only degrade the quality of professionals.
Create difference at the bottom and make a change rather than taking a short term measure.
This way you will create hatred only.
The quality of IITs and IIMs will be ruined if below standard faculties will be recruited . Most of the SCs and STs don’t have quality to get admissions in undergraduate and post graduate courses in these institutions. If they still get faculty positions the reputation of these institutions will go down. Another great blunder was created by V P Singh for vote bank politics.
So what? Do SCs & STs really deserve to study in IITs? Many brilliant scholars from general categories are unable to get admission because of them. They will get admission in under graduate & post graduate courses in IITs and IIMs without merit. Is merit not required for the position of faculties? If reservation will be abolished the country will progress like anything. It was V P Singh who created another blunder for vote bank politics.
45 comments & not a single one supporting this kind of research. People of India are no longer appreciating this kind of devisive studies mostly carried out with eye on some national award. Indian students need good teachers, caste is immaterial. Teaching is a profession and not a mere job. Caste diversity is a bogus argument.
At least for the premier institutions in the country, caste reservation should not be there. You project the situation as a grim. Why don’t you project this as a news?
The reasons that caste reservation for faculty position should be removed in IIM/IIT/IISERS/IIIT are,
1 . All are given equal opertunity. SC/ ST students get reservation for education to complete their UG/ PG or even Ph.D.
2. After completing their Ph.Ds, all are equally eligible for job.
3. All are already given equal justice to complete their education. Still, they want the same in job too.
4. Reservation is available for all state universities and central universities such that there are very less students with a PhD from SC/ST can remain jobless.
5. Considering all these, again media wants reservation for faculty recruitment in IIT/IIM/IIIT.
This happens only in incredible India.
You guys are idiots.. clearly.. I mean what’s the point there ha.. I don’t get it.. are you implying that these institutes should hire people based on their caste and not their merit to achieve your standard for healthy social Diversity.. here is the thing when a student from SC/ST gets into an IIT by getting 23 marks out of 100 whereas for the same seat a general has to score 65.. now which student is more eligible and more likely to be a professor.??
You are saying that guy who got 23 must become a lecturer ahead of the guy who scored 65. Or let’s put it this way had to score 65 for the same seat..
Bullshit..
The print that’s why they are bet institutes as they focus on quality not on politics and narrow mind thinking like your The print
Stop publishing this type of Rubbish articles irrespective of doing such studies focus on some ethical studies like poverty reduction .
Just dividing society is not your task .
Media please understand your responsibility.
If you have the balls to write such an article… Why not write an article on the division of soldiers in the Indian armed forces based on category let’s watch the figures and wonder why no one is speaking about the so called DIVERSITY DEFICIT….
THE PRINT please print useful data ….this is utter bullshit… Why should we believe this article…. Where is the authenticity??? Do you have solid proofs?? You should be ashamed to call yourself as a print media when clearly your work has the standards of a bullshit media….
I have been in one of the prestigious instititue of India I have seen this difference…..
1)People who even don’t how to do connections are doing there doctoral just because they belong to one of ‘Overrated caste’.
2) If someone tried to manage himself(belonging to obc/sc/st) to be as a faculty in one of these institute.
Most of the labour work will be thrown on him.
Just because he is not from that particular 2-3 caste communities.
One thing also I would like to mention is that, this is not the scene of only these institutes, Central Secretariat have same facts and figures.
…. And we are thinking that’s politicians who divide us. Media firms are equally responsible for this social divide of our country.
Do you think there is any need of such research??
It’s awesome if you research on faculty deficit in such premier institutions.
Just a request DO NOT DIVIDE US.
@kritika Sharma…the country is already divided based on reservation and you are highlighting the fact that reserved categories are not getting posts for teachers in these premier institutes…do we have to select teachers based on reservation or merit??In what state of mind were you in when you wrote this article…and it surprises me that the print even published this article. If you feel that teachers should be appointed based on reservation than on merit then I would recommend you to go see a doctor
Finally these kind of media people are into destroying premier education institutions and their reputation.How is caste a diversity factor in Teaching?? Did u do your schooling where u asked for only certain group of people to teach you based on the diversity criteria u feed upon?? No one who thinks of the country’s future gets such thought.so stop this negative media articles.If you people want to earn money on such false articles,it is very wrong and immoral.
So what to do??? The first thing is that the SC and ST people who studies in IIT and IIM doesn’t deserve admission their..
they are not that skill full like general people..
Why are you showing these stats IDK?
If you really care for them nahh then please write about the number of SC and ST serve at our borderline. I think their will be none.
Why a similar study is not carried out in TN universities, where there is a 69% Supremacist Quota and 95% of the population is illegally classified as “Backward”? Central Universities alone do not constitute Govt Employment. There are 36 States, which also provide University employment.
The owners, management & editor of THE PRINT – I think you have got your answers from readers. Please see reason. In your attempt to be politically correct, you people are inciting caste hatred. This is abuse of press freedom and anti-national too. This kind of research is inimical to the idea of India. Your Dilip Mandal, called “Sr Journalist” is a serial instigator, obsessed with SCST.
Bogus article. Grow up.
We need Meritorious and Expert TEACHERS.
NOTHING related to Caste.
keeping recruiting teachers on the basis of caste and not merit…let the educational standards deteriorate …that will be good for politics…at least leave the IITs and other institutions of national importance…like DU, HCU
All the intellectual faculty and All the intellectuals in this country are born and brought up and trained as the great meritorious students who later become doctors ,engineers, intellectual faculty of so called premier institutions are born only in upper caste. The data provided proves beyond doubt that all SC/ST/OBC are born Mentally Retarded.They don’t have any mental ability in any higher education. Finally any type of education.So we pray the modi government to take a tough decision to abolish Reservation. Also bring a law in the country not to admit those born as SC/ST/OBC children not to be admitted to LKG/UKG/PRIMARY/
HIGHER PRIMARY/HIGH SCHOOL/10 PLUS 2/ANY UNIVERSITY BOTH CENTRAL AND STATE.STRIKE OUT THE WORD Dr B.R.AMBEDKAR FROM HISTORY AND SPREAD FACT THAT Dr B.R.AMBEDKAR IS NOT THE ARCHITECT OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION.ACTUALLY IT IS WRITTEN BY A BRAHMIN BORN FROM MOUTH OF BRAHMA.AS WE ALL KNOW SWACH BHARATH ABHIYAN IS NOBLE .ALL SC/ST/OBC ARE FIT FOR SWACH BHARATH ABHIYAN AND SIMILAR PROGRAMS.INCREASE RESERVATION FROM 10% TO 100%.INDIA BECOME NO.1 IN THE WORLD.
The problem with all this quality and merit non sense is savrnas are blind when it comes to social justice and have benign hatred from lower classes!
Just stop this kind of shit . An idiot cannot be a professor of IIIT/IIIM, what ever the cast of a person is no matter.
Reservation is for development , so that the undeveloped can get more opportunities & to improve our society.
In development and improvement teachers or guids / Experts plays important role , so you cannot give any illiterate /stupid/unqualified people to be expert in reputated institute (what ever maybe the cast of a person is).
And I don’t know what is the reason behind this article ,and what the hell you want to prove. By the way come to my village I will show you what you guys have to publish /highlight/improve.
JAI HIND.
It’s high time that you rubbish publisher stop publishing such articles. You people are more dangerous to our country than the politicians who uses caste system as a vote bank. The high salary package that are offered at iit and IIM is by the foreign countries because they are thought by mertious professors. We are blaming britishers for our backwardness even today but the main reason behind it is our caste system dividing rule . Stop publishing such rubbish articles , get a life
In India caste is the biggest barrier between meritorious persons and quality jobs and education. Its too shameful that 9% are fools misleading our students. Even there’s 9% should be kicked out of prestigious institute and posts shud be given on merit.
Thank god this is the situation,
If ‘they’ were able enough, there’d be more faculty from reserved category.
Positions, like that of pilots, surgeons should be given to only the best available; nobody wants to comit flying with an incompetet commander of an aircraft, nor let somebody no better than a butcher cut you open for surgery. Same here only somebody who knows well can teach it. Getting any body else would be injurious to the students. RC.
Thank goodness!!
We need to keep some posts on merit rather than quota.
The faculty in these institutes should be appointed on merit and not on quota.
Same should happen in medical schools too.
It is bad enough that we use caste rather than economic factors to allow non-meritorious students into premier institutes, but atleast leave the faculty out of this quota exercise.
So what to do….. They should upskill themselves..
Why we need to travel to US for decades old diseases, and get treated by Indian Doctors in US…
Answer is this Reservation system only..
As far as quality of faculties is concerned, there must not be any compromise. After all, irrespective of caste and religion, all parents want their children study under the guidance of the best faculties.
Talking about so called ‘diversity ‘ amounts to an effort to dilute standard of IITs and IIMs.
Please also do an article on students representation from different castes.
Hope some common sense prevail before such an article is published.
You don’t need to count on caste, religion , ethnicity for such institution and profession.
Articles like these make me fear for the future of this country..
Think, if the teachers are not hired on the basis of merit and dumb people manage to get in these premier institutes just because they are SCs and STs, what’s the use of it?
Its better to hand these people cash right away.. Terrible teachers, terrible doctors, terrible engineers and everything.. God save this country!
Can you please get the breakup of reserved category representation in Indian military specifically those who are posted in Siachen and other border areas.?
At the level of professors at IIMs and IITs the type of diversity we should be concerned about is gender diversity, intellectual diversity, continental diversity, portfolio diversity, research diversity, experience diversity etc. Unfortunately we are still stuck up in one and only caste diversity….Shameful
Now what do you want, r u going to ask to reserve these faculty as alwz done in politics
As long as there is caste based reservation INDIA WILL NEVER PROGRESS AT ITS POTENTIAL.
In whole nation, At least IITs have got some respect for the Hardworkers then facilitating the reservatories
SC and ST communities are getting reservations. And then also if they can’t compete then one can blame no one. Moreover why are we dividing even students on the basis of so called “caste”. Why can’t we be only Indians and nothing else. Afterall, there is no caste for science and technology and no caste even for IIT-JEE.
Now this is the reason why IITs and IIMs are the best institutions in India??
You yourself are diversifying the nation by such illogical articles. These premiere institutes don’t see caste, or religion for recruitment in teaching post, instead, they look for talented and dedicated teachers who want to serve the nation.
How much % SCs/STs are in your media company? You will still have problem with our eminent scientists.
After few years, you might demand that every house in the country must have 50% of reserved people. That much illogical your topic is here.
Thank You
Yes we can give them first education too and then job too. If they have passion then nothing is required but only a strong deteemination. Those who ask for reservation have all money and resources to gain education. And those who are deserving never get a chance.
There r so many places where obc n sc St representation is more than 80% have u gone through office. Go n watch d situation of ssc cgl results u people will get all d answers there.
Don’t go on whatsapp messages just try to find out fact and figures by yourself… And then realize what is exactly happening!!
Wow!!! Amazing….. Now just for the fact to attain diveristy these reputed institutions are going to have caste based system and not merit….. Too bad.. With this idealogy we surely are sinking
Bogus and biased article
So what is the problem if institute dont have SC and ST professor?
Do other cast professor dont teach well?
Why you are so concern about SC and ST.
Look at competition level in Open catagory. Indian Education system and Gov job Sector is very worst as far as catagory is concerned.
You earn your way in these premiere institutes by merit and not by caste.
If you want to get bypass surgery done for yourself or your loved one, will you prefer to go to a doctor because he is a SC caste? Or a meritorious doctor irrespective of whichever caste.
Grow up…
This is the reason for their unique identity and reputation
This is the reason why these institutions has its own unique identity and reputation
Why would u want diversity in such an institution? Colleges need meritorious professors not some below average sc or st.
How many SCs or STs are there in ur firm?
So called “Diversity” argument, is a bogus arguement. One can understand, RC groups demanding ‘caste’ diversity, by one does not know, why NON-RC people should get in to all this. These serial instigators will carefully avoid similar study in TN universities, where the supremacist 69%quota is applied for 40 years, & 95% population is categorised as, “backward”.
What to say and where this argument ends?