Only 4.9% of higher education teachers are Muslims

At 4.9%, Muslim representation among teachers in higher educational institutions in India is much lower than the community’s proportion in India’s population (14.2%).

The recently released All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) for the year 2016-17 reveals this.

The representation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is also lower than the populations of the two categories.

While the survey – done by the Ministry of Human Resource Development – shows the representation of SCs at 8.3% of the total number of teachers in higher educational institutions, ST representation is 2.2%.

The Scheduled Castes account for 16.6% of India’s population and STs about 8.6%.

Telangana has 10.8% SC and 3.6% ST teachers, Andhra Pradesh has 13.6% SC and 1.6% ST teachers, and Maharashtra has 11% SC and 1.4% ST teachers.

“At the all-India level, teachers belonging to the general category are more than half, that is, 58.2% of the total number of teachers in India; OBCs follow at 31.3%,” says the survey report.

While there are no precise figures of the population of the general category and OBCs in India – since there have been no caste census data since 1931, except for SC/ST populations – the OBC population has been estimated at about 41% by NSSO and 52% by the Mandal Commission.

While one reason for the skew in representation may be variable access to higher education – a must for teaching at these levels – the data reveal that SC, ST and OBC reservations have still not brought about representational parity.

The report also details the gender distribution in the teaching profession at the higher education level.

Bihar comes across as having a hugely skewed gender ratio, with 75.3% male teachers and just 24.7% female teachers. Jharkhand also shows an excess of male teachers, with the ratio at 60:40.

“A few states Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Delhi and Goa have more female teachers than male teachers,” says the report.