Editor's Pick: Should IITs be exempted from faculty reservation?

The Hindu Newsletter - Newsletter - subject [The Hindu Logo]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Linkedin]( [Instagram]( Wednesday 16, December 2020 [alt_text]( Editor's Pick Should IITs be exempted from faculty reservation? [alt_text]( (The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.) A panel constituted by the Ministry of Education has recommended that [reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs]( in faculty positions at IITs should be scrapped. It proposes doing this by including IITs in the list of Institutions of Excellence, which are exempt from reservation policies. The panel cites the need to maintain academic excellence and lack of candidates from the reserved categories as reasons for its recommendations. It suggests bridge courses to get more students from [reserved categories into PhD courses](, to create a pipeline of possible faculty hires. As per law, faculty positions in IITs must be reserved with 15% set apart for SCs, 7.5% for STs and 27% for OBCs. However, a reply in Parliament last year from the Ministry of Human Resource Development showed that only 3% of IIT faculty members are from the SC/ST categories. Along with OBCs, the reserved categories made up only 9% of the faculty. In November 2019, the MHRD had ordered all IITs and IIMs to ensure that [faculty recruitments happen as per reservations]( mandated by law. The Ministry of Education panel was constituted in April 2020 to look into the effective implementation of the reservation policy in IITs, both in faculty positions and in student admissions. The faculty positions in IITs are controlled by the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act of 2019. This law allows for some institutions of national importance to be exempted from reservation policies. This primarily includes highly-specialised, research-oriented ones. Including IITs in this list would mean a large number of faculty members, who interface with a much larger number of students across science and humanities, are moved out of the sphere of reservation policies. Reservation as a way of empowering the lower castes is a constitutionally mandated method in India. IITs are now India's premier institutions of technical education and the aspiration of lakhs of students across castes and communities. Taking them out of the ambit of reservations raises issues of legal provisions, social safeguards and academic excellence. This is what makes the story important. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor's Pick and more. [Click here]( The Big Story [Industrial units in Haryana’s Bahadurgarh slowed down by farmers’ protest]( [alt_text]( From the Front Page [alt_text]( [Caste and community don’t matter, love is not a crime, says Moradabad girl]( [alt_text]( [Scrap quotas for IIT faculty: MoE panel]( From the Opinion Pages [alt_text]( [From a digital India to a digital Bharat]( [alt_text]( [Punjab, Haryana need to look beyond MSP crops]( Today's Editorials [Vaccine drive: On India's COVID-](19 vaccine policy [Mild moderation: On retail infla](tion You are receiving this email because you are a user of [thehindu.com]( If you do not wish to receive any such emails, [unsubscribe here.](mailto:rm-0b42ztu8bf2f90kaup33rtbysa8hka2@newsalert.thehindu.com?subject=Unsubscribe&body=You will be unsubscribed from our mailing list.) To ensure you continue to receive emails from The Hindu in your inbox, please add newsletters.th@newsalert.thehindu.com to your contact. If you can't see the mailer, please [click here.]( Group Sites [The Hindu]( | [இந்து தமிழ் திசை]( | [Business Line]( | [BL on Campus]( | [Sportstar]( | [Frontline]( | [The Hindu Centre]( | [Images]( | [roofandfloor]( | [Classifieds]( Copyright @ 2020 ,THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. [About Us]( | [Contact Us]( | [Digital Subscription](