A Tribal University as the name suggests gives an impression of mainly catering to the higher education requirements of Scheduled Tribes but apparently it is no different from other Central and State universities.
For the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University at Amarkantak of Madhya Pradesh despite the tag of ‘tribal’ provides only 7.5% reservation for the ST students leaving the remaining seats open to all communities.
Anguished with the student intake ratio, A. Seetaram Naik, an MP from Telangana and a member of the Parliamentary SC/ST Welfare Committee has urged the Centre to increase the reservation of ST students to 70%.
“The meagre proportion of seats reserved for the ST students defeats the very purpose of establishing an exclusive tribal university. Central universities and conventional universities also offer 7.5% reservation,” he points out
The National Tribal University was established by an Act of the Parliament and came into existence in July 2008 with an objective to attract tribal students for availing themselves higher education and undertake research. Such special focus was ostensibly to do social justice and enable the tribal students to come on par with students from other sections. “Centre can initiate amendments to the Act to enhance the reservation for tribal students,” he says. Ever since the sprawling Tribal University came up at Amarkantak, it became an aspiration for other States with considerable ST population to have such a university. The States of Telangana and A.P. with significant population of Scheduled Tribes after bifurcation of the combined AP were sanctioned Tribal Universities under the provisions of the A.P. State Reorganisation Act, 2014.
The proposal also gathered momentum when a team of Central government led by Secretary of Higher Education visited Telangana State recently to select about 500 acres of land for the proposed Tribal University in Telangana.
Mr. Naik realised the lacuna in reservation extended to ST students when he visited the Tribal University at Amarkantak. “ We are happy that the GoI team visited my constituency. But the student intake should be enhanced in the ratio of 70:30 for STs and others in the National Tribal University and the proposed Tribal Universities in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
A university professor hailing from ST community, Prof Seetaram Naik gave a formal representation to the Human Resources Development Ministry on Thursday.
The Telangana government set up exclusive residential schools for SCs, STs, minorities and BCs to help the children of marginalised sections come up the social ladder and it provides bulk of seats by providing 75% reservation for the children of these communities in the exclusive schools leaving 25% of seats to students from other sections. he said.
