Nearly 4,000 SC, ST, OBC central university teaching posts vacant
Around 3,874 teaching posts for candidates from reserved categories are lying vacant in all 45 central universities across the country, the Centre informed the Parliament on Monday. It further said that more than 1,471 candidates from the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Class (OBC), Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), and the disabled categories were recruited between September 2021 and February 2023.
Why does this story matter?
Higher education institutions run by the Centre have been accused of gatekeeping teaching posts. In 2019, the Centre informed that 95% of professors in central universities, IITs, and IIMs belong to the general category or "upper castes." These higher education institutions under the Union government reportedly have abysmally low numbers of faculty members from historically marginalized groups despite the push from the Supreme Court.
BHU, DU top list of reserved vacancies
Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar furnished the data in the Lok Sabha following a query raised by BJP MP Dharmendra Kashyap. Notably, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has the highest number of reserved-category vacancies at 576, followed by the University of Delhi (DU) at 526. In addition, DU has 299 such vacancies at the associate professor level, while BHU has 228.
5 universities account for nearly 1,900 of total vacancies
The data also revealed that BHU has 108 reserved vacancies for SCs, 81 for STs, 311 for OBCs, 53 for EWS, and 23 for Persons with Disabilities (PwD). DU has 123, 61, 212, 86, and 44 vacancies for these, respectively. In terms of reserved vacancies, these two universities are followed by the University of Allahabad, Visva Bharati University, and Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University.
No suitable candidate found for 549 vacancies
The Education Ministry informed the Parliament that five central universities found no suitable candidate for as many as 549 reserved teaching posts. The University of Hyderabad (UoH) has the highest number of such vacancies at 156—74 for SCs, 66 for STs, and 14 for OBCs. It is followed by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Central University of Karnataka, BHU, and Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya.
