The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Faculty positions in the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) remain overwhelmingly dominated by people belonging to the General category, despite government-mandated reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC), and Scheduled Tribes (ST), according to a report in the Hindu.
Replies to Right to Information (RTI) requests filed by Gowd Kiran Kumar, national president of the All India OBC Students Association, received individually from these institutions in September 2024, reveal that in at least two IITs and three IIMs, more than 90% of faculty positions are held by those from the General category. Additionally, in six IITs and four IIMs, the figure stands at 80-90%.
In IIM Indore, 97.2% of faculty (106 out of 109) belong to the General category, with no representation from the SC or ST categories. IIM Udaipur and IIM Lucknow also report over 90% of faculty from the General category.
Protests over similar disparities in faculty recruitment were recently reported at IIM Bangalore, where 85% of the faculty are from the General category. Notably, six IIMs analysed have no ST faculty members.
Among IITs, 90% of the faculty at IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur belong to the General category. IIT Mandi, Gandhinagar, Kanpur, Guwahati, and Delhi report similar trends, with 80-90% of faculty positions held by those from the General category.
Across the 13 IIMs analysed, faculty composition is 82.8% General category, 5% SC, 1% ST and 9.6% OBC. The remainder comprises economically weaker sections and individuals under the quota for the physically challenged. For the 21 IITs that provided data, faculty composition is 80% General category, 6% SC, 1.6% ST and 11.2% OBC.
Certain IITs and IIMs stand out for better implementation of reservation policies. At IIT Patna, only 12% of faculty belong to the General Category while 38% are OBC, 22% SC and 13% ST. Similarly, IIT Bhilai and IIT Indore report roughly 50% of faculty from the General category.
Among IIMs, IIM Jammu reported a relatively balanced faculty composition with 51% from the General category, 19% SC, 5% ST and 23% OBC.
Also read: Over 13,000 SC, ST, OBC Students Dropped Out of Central Universities, IITs, IIMs Since 2018
The RTI responses also shed light on faculty vacancies across these institutions, highlighting significant gaps in fulfilling reserved positions. Among the seven IIMs that provided vacancy data, 256 positions remain unfilled, including 88 for OBCs, 54 for SCs and 30 for STs. Similarly, 11 IITs reported 1,557 faculty vacancies, with 415 reserved for OBCs, 234 for SCs and 129 for STs.
As per the Centre’s policy, 27% of faculty positions are reserved for OBCs, 15% for SCs, and 7.5% for STs in nearly all central educational institutions, including IITs and IIMs. However, the data indicates significant gaps in compliance and highlight ongoing disparities in the representation of marginalised groups in elite academic institutions.