Amidst the ongoing national debate surrounding the representation of Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, and Other Backward Classes in the job sector, it has emerged that over 80% of the faculties at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar are from unreserved categories.
Responding to information sought by Gowd Kiran Kumar, president of All India OBC Students Association by under Right Information Act, the IIT, Bhubaneswar authorities said the institute has 300 sanctioned posts of professor, associate professor and assistant professors.
Currently, 213 faculty positions have been filled across various departments in IIT, Bhubaneswar. As per the reply, 95 posts of faculties are lying vacant. If categorization of faculties working in the premiere institute is analysed, 171 out of 213 total faculties in position belong to general category.
About 28 candidates from Other Backward Classes including a person with disabilities are imparting teaching in IIT, Bhubaneswar. In the entire campus, one person from tribal communities has held faculty position while 12 are from scheduled caste communities. One faculty hails from Economically Weaker Section.
“We began filing RTI applications in 2018 to gather information on faculty appointments in central government institutions. To our astonishment, we discovered that at that time, only nine professors belong to OBCs in across 45 central universities nationwide,” Mr. Kiran said.
“We met Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan twice to bring this issue to his attention. He responded positively, directing all central institutes to initiate special drives to fill vacant positions in line with the reservation policy. However, the recent data from IIT Bhubaneswar is disheartening. The representation of marginalized communities remains alarmingly low, with only one tribal faculty member, making up just 0.4%,” he pointed out.
Senior Congress leader and former Minister Srikant Jena said, “It is mandatory for all central institutes to adhere to the reservation policy. However, many fail to fill positions designated for reserved categories, often citing lack of suitable candidates as the reason.”
“We will demand a thorough investigation into recruitment process followed by IIT, Bhubaneswar to fill up the posts. If suitable candidates are not available, the institute should have made sincere efforts to scout for talents from reserved categories,” Mr. Jena said.
Reservation to the SCs, STs and OBCs in case of direct recruitment on all India basis by open competition is given at the rate of 15%, 7.5% and 27% respectively. Despite efforts to reach out to IIT Bhubaneswar for their comments, no one was available to clarify institute’s position.
Published – September 07, 2024 02:20 am IST
