A total of 53 posts of faculty members reserved under Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) remained ‘unfilled’ at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, as on September 2022. This was revealed in data presented by the Union Education Ministry in the ongoing Lok Sabha session, while sharing information about the ‘mission mode recruitment’ conducted at all IITs for a year to fill faculty posts reserved for SC, ST and OBC.
After being criticised for hesitating to implement reservation in faculty recruitments, the IITs have again come under the scanner after the data shows dismal response from across IITs to the ‘mission mode recruitment’ launched in September 2021, when the information on backlog vacancy in IITs was gathered.
In the wake of the year-long special recruitment drive, S Venkatesan, CPI(M) MP from Madurai, sought data on the vacancies and recruitment conducted as part of the drive.
In September 2021, the backlog vacancy at IIT Bombay for faculty posts reserved under SC, ST and OBC categories showed a total vacancy of 77 posts. Since then, IIT Bombay, according to the report, has managed to complete recruitment on 24 posts during this special drive.
The official also clarified that IIT Bombay, like other IITs, follows a rolling advertisement, and fully complies with government rules on roster maintenance, which determines reservation of posts in different categories. “We do not specify an exact number of vacancies to be filled in the year. Instead, the last roster position we fill in a year across all categories is used to define the vacancies filled in that year. All positions before that are treated as backlog vacancies for that year. The vacancies in all categories after the last filled roster point are treated as unadvertised, and thus unfilled but not backlog vacancies,” said the official.
However, according to the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) at IIT Bombay, which has been raising the issue of faculty recruitment on posts under reserved category, the data appears to be faulty as, according to its members, the number of overall vacancies is much higher.
“If reservation policy – which asks for reservation of 27% in faculty positions for candidates from OBC category, 15% for SC and 7.5% for ST candidates – is followed properly. the number will be higher,” said a member of APPSC.
“But IIT Bombay is one of the few IITs that has provided clear information with figures. Some other IITs, including IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur and IIT BHU Varanasi, have stated that they were unable to identify the backlog posts to be filled through the recruitment drive. But some recruitments have taken place at these IITs. The data shows failure of the government in ensuring implementation of reservation policy in faculty recruitment at IITs,” the member added.
In the report, IIT Roorkee, with a backlog vacancy of 62 posts, shows the highest vacancy in faculty posts reserved under SC, ST and OBC, which is followed by IIT Bombay and later by IIT Gandhinagar, with backlog vacancy of 34 posts; from among the IITs which have provided the information to government about the backlog. IIT Madras, which had a backlog vacancy of 44, completed recruitment on 29 posts.
Courtesy : The Indian Express