Less Than 20% Faculty from Reserved Category, Are IITs & IIMs Upper Caste Clubs?
RTI data reveals widespread violation in implementing quota while recruiting faculty in IITs and IIMs across India.
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Over 97 percent of the faculty strength at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore belongs to the General Category or Unreserved Category. In contrast, there are no professors belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities.
Similarly, over 91 percent of the faculty strength at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay belongs to the General or Unreserved Category. By comparison, faculty members belonging to the ST community form a meagre 0.88% of the total faculty strength.
These are findings from a clutch of Right to Information (RTI) applications filed by G Kiran Kumar, National President of the All India Other Backward Classes Student Association (AIOBCSA) in September this year.
Not only is this in contravention with the Article 16(4) of the Indian Constitution but also with the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act, 2019, which mandates reservation in teachers’ cadre in educational institutions established, maintained or aided by the Central Government.
“The data from RTI responses also reveals that faculty members belonging to marginalised communities were predominantly recruited in the posts of Assistant Professor and not for Associate Professor or Professor, which are executive posts,” Kumar told The Quint.
Are IITs and IIMs truly inclusive as far as their faculty is concerned? Data from RTI applications does not paint a pleasant picture:
Over 75% General Faculty in Nearly Half of the IITs
In line with the Constitution of India and the Supreme Court guidelines, the government of India mandates reservations for persons belonging to marginalised communities in education and jobs —15 percent for SC, 7.5 percent for ST, 27 percent for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 10 percent for those belonging to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), and 5 percent for Persons with Disabilities (PwD).
In addition, the above mentioned 2019 Act enforces reservation of posts in direct recruitment out of the sanctioned strength in teachers' cadre in Central educational institutions.
However, data reveals that at least two IITs—Kharagpur and Bombay—have more than 90 percent of their faculty from the General category, leaving little to no room for those belonging to marginalised groups.
Further, in six IITs more than 80 percent of the faculty strength is from the General category.
As a result, the faculty members belonging to ST communities form 0.003 percent of the current faculty strength at IIT Kharagpur. Similarly, at IIT Kanpur, teachers from ST category 0.88 percent of the faculty strength.
Among older IITs, which were formed before 2000, faculty recruitments are especially skewed in favour of the General category. Among the newer ones, however, IIT Patna and IIT Indore have a somewhat balanced faculty composition.
As a matter of fact, IIT Patna is the only institute where SC, ST and OBC faculty strength is more than General category. Meanwhile, IIT Madras has not yet responded to Kumar's RTI query.
Does This Not Violate the Law?
When asked to give a breakup of the sanctioned seats in order to clarify what percentage of the total seats were being reserved for each category, most IITs stated that they follow a “flexi cadre system for filling of vacancies by direct recruitment and promotions and hence post-wise details are not available.”
While IIT Kharagpur clarified that the sanctioned strength of the teachers’ cadre is considered at a ratio of 1:10 (faculty: students), making it dynamic; the institute did not state what the ‘flexi cadre system’ is.
He added that the flexible cadre system allows IITs to pick whoever they want. “It is a mask to make the recruitment process entirely opaque,” Pranav remarked.
In their RTI response, IIT Indore stated that — "reservation is applicable only for direct recruitment and Institute follow flexi cadre as per GOI norms." But does this mean that following the flexi cadre system can bypass the reservation norms?
The Quint has reached out to IITs mentioned in the story regarding the flexi-cadre system and will update the story once they respond. Meanwhile, in a Parliament response given in February this year, former MoS Education Dr Subhas Sarkar had stated that IITs have been directed to follow the 2019 Act and the guidelines issued by DoPT with regard to preparation of rosters. He added:
"IITs issues rolling advertisements for faculty recruitment, which are open throughout the year for all candidates, who fulfil the required qualifications and experience for faculty positions in IITs. Occurring of vacancies and filling thereof is a continuous process."
'SC/ST/OBC Faculty Not Being Recruited For Senior Posts'
Candidates applying for different posts are screened by a committee comprising of senior faculty members and professors, Pranav stated.
However, in most IITs—including Kanpur, Ropar, Mandi, Jammu, Gandhinagar, Dharwad, Bhilai and Palakkad—there are no professors belonging to SC or ST communities.
The negligible recruitment of faculty members belonging to marginalised communities is in the lower posts of Assistant Professor, and very rarely in the mid-level post of Associate Professor. It is to be noted that these posts do not hold executive, decision-making powers and they do not form a part of crucial policy-making committees.
So, for an institute such as IIT Bombay, where nearly 92 percent of the faculty is General and many departments have no professors from the SC/ST/OBC categories, the hiring committee is also predominantly General faculty members.
Despite this under-representation, most vacancies are still in the General category, as per the RTI responses. And again, vacancies for SC/ST/OBC categories primarily lie in the non-executive posts.
At Least 8 IIMs With Less Than 20% Faculty from Reserved Categories
The situation is not better at Indian Institutes of Management. At least four IIMs—Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Udaipur—have more than 90 percent of their current faculty strength from the General category. Consequently, IIM Calcutta, Lucknow and Indore have no faculty belonging to the ST community.
Again, in at least four IIMs, including IIM Bangalore, more than 80 percent of the current faculty strength belongs to the General category in direct violation of the 2019 Act as well as the Indian Constitution.
Last week, Karnataka’s Department of Social Welfare reportedly directed the Bengaluru Police to initiate action against officials, including the director, of IIM Bangalore over allegations of caste discrimination against Dr Gopal Das, an associate professor of marketing.
However, it wasn’t clear if IIMs were following the flexi cadre system or roster-based reservation for hiring faculty members. While IIM Mumbai stated that it followed the flexi-cadre system, IIM Ahmedabad stated that it “does not maintain category-wise data of faculty members".
Meanwhile, IIM Amritsar responded to the RTI query, saying, “It is stated that IIM Amritsar is an independent autonomous body established by the Act of the Parliament called IIM Act, 2017 and having separate Board of Governor.”
G Kiran Rao told The Quint that he has filed appeals to these responses to seek clear data.
The Quint has reached out to all the IITs and IIMs mentioned in the story regarding the flexi-cadre system and implementation of reservations while recruiting faculty members. The Quint will update the story as and when they respond.
IIT-ISM Dhanbad responded by telling The Quint to "file a fresh RTI application".