A day after a Right to Information (RTI) query revealed scant recruitment of faculty from reserved groups at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) in 2023, the institute has called the information 'misleading'.
In a post on X, the IIT-B has offered 'correct figures', showing that 64 teachers hailing from Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) have been hired since 2021. The institute, however, didn't share any data on the overall number of faculty members recruited in this period.
The institute further clarified that while many of these teachers have already joined the institute, some are yet to do so. “We are yet to complete the interviews for certain departments, which will bring in more candidates,” read the post.
Following an RTI request by the student group Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle, the IIT-B released information that out of 21 teachers hired in 2023, only four belong to the SC. It also revealed that barely 6% of the teachers (44 out of 718) hail from the backward communities. This, according to the students, is a violation of reservation policy for central universities which have SC, ST and OBC have a 15%, 7.5% and 27% quotas, respectively.
The students, however, remained unsatisfied with the IIT-B's counter, pointing out that the RTI information was provided by the institute itself. They also argued that even if the latest crop of teachers from backward communities is added to the existing pool of teachers, the share of faculty from reserved categories will stand at 9%, much less than the reservation norms.
The IIT-B, along with its counterparts, have been facing flak for lack of diversity among its teachers and student community for the past several years. Despite directions from the Supreme Court and the University Grants Commission to fill vacant posts through mission mode recruitment in accordance with the reservation policies, the institute is yet to bridge the disparity.
