Only 30% of SC, ST, OBC faculty vacancies filled at IITs, Central Universities in a year: Centre

Of the 1,439 vacancies identified between September 2021 and 2022, only 449 were filled with faculty members from reserved categories, the Education Ministry told the Lok Sabha

Of the 23 IITs, only 10 were able to identify 342 vacancies in these categories for positions of Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors. | Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj

Despite a year-long mission mode recruitment drive to hire faculty for reserved category positions at the elite Indian Institutes of Technology and Central Universities, just over 30% of identified vacancies were filled, the Education Ministry told Parliament this week.

In the one year between September 5, 2021, and September 5, 2022, 23 IITs and 45 Central Universities across the country were directed to conduct a mission mode recruitment to fill up vacancies in teaching positions reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (SC/ST/OBC). During this period, 1,439 vacancies were identified, against which just 449 recruitments were made.

Of the 45 Central Universities, 33 had identified a total of 1,097 vacancies in these categories, of which just 212 were filled. Even among these 33 Universities, the data revealed that 18 of them had recruited no SC/ST/OBC teaching faculty at all despite having identified vacancies. 

Unfilled vacancies at top univs

Among these 18 Central Universities, the Jawaharlal Nehru University had identified 75 vacancies, none of which were filled; the Banaras Hindu University identified 114 vacancies, none of which were filled; and the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University identified 7 vacancies, none of which were filled. 

Twelve of the Central Universities conducted almost no recruitment during this drive, saying that they had no backlog and could not identify any vacancies in these categories. 

As of September this year, the data presented in Parliament showed that Central Universities had a combined backlog of over 920 positions in the SC/ST/OBC categories for teaching faculty. 

Low recruitment

Of the 23 IITs, only 10 were able to identify 342 vacancies in these categories for positions of Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors. A total of 237 positions in these categories were filled at 19 IITs. 

An analysis of the raw data by the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) of IIT Bombay showed that 13 IITs were unable to identify vacancies to be filled in this recruitment drive because they follow “flexible cadre structure for faculty positions”. However, despite this, except for three (IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bhilai, IIT Bhubaneswar), the others did recruit a small number of SC/ST/OBC faculty in this time. The analysis further showed that 358 vacancies remained at 14 IITs at the end of this mission mode recruitment exercise. 

Of the recruitments done in this time period, the APPSC found that no ST candidates were recruited at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, IIT ISM Dhanbad, IIT Tirupati, IIT Goa and IIT Dharwad. Further, no SC candidate was recruited in IIT Roorkee. In addition, it was found that most IITs did not recruit SC/ST/OBC candidates at the Professor and Associate Professor levels. 

While presenting the data in the Lok Sabha, in response to a question from S. Venkatesan of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi said, “Filling up of vacancies, including backlog vacancies, is a continuous process.”