There are as many as 3,669 reserved category teaching positions, including the post of 880 professors, vacant in the central universities, the Ministry of Education told Rajya Sabha in a written response on Wednesday.
According to the response, to a question raised by CPI(M) MP AA Rahim, 988 teaching posts of SC category, 576 ST, 1,761 OBC and 344 PWD (persons with disabilities) are lying vacant. Apart from professors, the vacancies in the reserved categories include teaching positions of 1,624 associate professors and 1,793 assistant professors.
“The data given exposes the Union government’s dilution of the constitutional mandated reservation and of its identity politics of appointing a tribal woman as President as mere hollow appeasement,” Rahim said in a statement.
Responding to the question, the government also shared numbers of posts for which recruitment process have been initiated, along with a university-wise break up of reserved posts for which applicants have not been found suitable.
The response shows that Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), University of Hyderabad and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) are among the institutions which declared the maximum number of applicants for the posts as not suitable.
In the case of JNU, 22 SC, 10 ST and 33 OBC positions, for which recruitment process was carried out, candidates were not found suitable, while the corresponding figures are 74 (SC), 66 (ST) and 14 (OBC) for University of Hyderabad and 16 (SC), 11 (ST) and 6 (OB) for BHU.
“It is also a ridiculous assertion that in the present situation where there is massive unemployment the top central universities are unable to find anyone suitable. The government must immediately correct this violation of reservation rights and fill all the vacancies in teaching posts in the central universities,” Rahim added.
Overall, the central universities have as many as 6,549 vacant faculty positions, according to data shared by the Ministry of Education in Lok Sabha on Monday.
Delhi University has the maximum (900) vacant teaching posts followed by the University of Allahabad (622), Banaras Hindu University (532), Aligarh Muslim University (498) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (326). Since August 2021, 4,807 posts in central universities have been advertised for which the selection processes are on, the ministry added.
Courtesy : The Indian Express