More than thousand faculty positions in the government higher education institutions continue to remain vacant for want of suitable candidates to fill up the 27 per cent Other Backward Class (OBC) quota.
In the report submitted by the Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes in Lok Sabha has raised serious concerns over the lackadaisical approach of the human resource development ministry and the University Grants Commission for having failed to take concrete measures to fill up the 27 per cent seats.
While the institutes say the unavailability of suitable candidates for the posts is to blame for the situation, the leaders representing the backward community and activists are of the view that it is the element of discrimination by these institutions that they fail to find adequate talent to fill these perennially vacant reserved posts.
In the report submitted by the committee, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) have apprised the government of non-availability of suitable candidates to fill up these posts.
Less than six per cent of teaching posts in the IITs reserved under the OBC category have been filled in the past eight years. IITs, including those in Madras, Gandhinagar, Indore, Hyderabad, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Kanpur and Roorkee have cited the same reason for failing to have filled these posts since 2008-09.
"There is an acute shortage of strong faculty in the country. As a result more than 200 faculty positions are lying vacant despite all the efforts," reports IIT Kanpur. There are 247 such faculty positions lying vacant in Kanpur as on 2014-15.
Like the IITs, the NITs have also sited similar concerns. NIT Calicut, Hamirpur, Jaipur, Kurukshetra, Rourkela, Surat, Surathkal, Warangal, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Meghalaya and Mizoram have failed to get qualified teachers to fill the vacant posts. Most of these NITs have been advertising these vacancies every year, but have failed to find suitable candidates.
The situation is no better in the Central universities governed directly by the HRD ministry, where nearly 40 per cent of reserved category seats continue to remain vacant. While the higher education institutions have grown by 9.5 per cent per annum, the system has failed to create adequate faculty to fill the reserved category seats.
In the reply submitted to the committee, the HRD ministry writes, "There is vacancy to the extent of 40 percent of the aggregate teaching posts in central educational institutions in the country. In these institutions sufficient applications, fulfilling the required eligibility norms are not being received even if relaxation in standards are applied."
Expressing its displeasure about the initiative taken by the HRD ministry and UGC to fill these posts, the committee has observed that both institutions and HRD ministry has failed to comply with the DoPT guidelines for filling these posts. "In the opinion of the Committee, the MHRD is equally responsible as they have failed the implementation of DoPT guidelines by the CEIs in letter and spirit." The committee has recommended that the ministry and institutions hold special drives to fill up these posts.
The activists and academicians working for the rights of the reserved category candidates, however, feel that it is the lack of sincere effort and a conscious conspiracy by the institutions and the government that these posts are lying vacant. "It is hard to believe that 40 percent of seats are vacant. Non availability of a suitable candidate is a routine assessment by the government," said Rajya Sabha MP D Raja.
Raja also alleged that it is the mindset of the establishments towards the reserved classes that these posts do not get filled up.
Dalit activist Paul Divakar also blames the prevailing prejudices against the OBCs and other backward classes. "The institutions give a second class treatment to these candidates. Instead to make them suitable for the mainstream the institutions should bear the cost so that the OBCs can get adapted into the mainstream," said Divakar of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights.
BJP leader Udit Raj who also represents the community blames the premium institutions. "Instead of providing them a cushion so that they can compete with the mainstream, institutions adopt a discriminatory policy," said Raj.
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