21 IIMs have less than 200 SC, ST, OBC teachers against 1,880 sanctioned posts despite quota law

Across 21 Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), with a total of 1,880 sanctioned faculty posts, there are less than 200 teachers from historically-marginalised communities – the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. The only available public data shows there are 62 SC, 16 ST and 109 OBC teachers, all told.

Their representation – 3.2% for SC, 0.85% ST and 5.8% OBC – fall far below reservation levels, even though the IIMs claim to have implemented the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act, 2019. This is as per data shared with the parliamentary standing committee on education, headed by Congress MP Digvijaya singh.

Most IIMs evaded questions sent by Careers360 on the implementation of reservation in faculty appointments.

IIM Kozhikode shared recent data and also issues that the institute faces during recruitment – a small pool size of qualified candidates and of those with doctoral degrees, and potential applicants preferring to work in metropolitan cities – for not being able to fill reserved positions.

A report by The Telegraph from September this year stated that the union education ministry has directed IIMs to implement reservation and warned of action if found evading it.

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First-generation IIMs: Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore

Among the older IIMs, Ahmedabad had not provided a break-up by the specific category – SC, ST or OBC – even to the panel. The table below shows the representation – of lack thereof – of teachers from marginalised backgrounds in IIM faculties, as it stood earlier this year. The report came in March 2025.

SC, ST, OBC teachers in first-generation IIMs

Source: Parliament Panel Report

More forthcoming with data, IIM Kozhikode has a total of 33 sanctioned posts for the three caste categories; of these, 21 are vacant.

“We are fully committed to implementing the Government of India’s reservation policy in letter and spirit. The institute has implemented the provisions of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act, 2019, and faculty recruitments are carried out strictly in accordance with the act and subsequent Government of India directives,” said Sebastian MP, dean, faculty administration and development at IIM Kozhikode.

“The institute has also been making sustained efforts to attract and recruit faculty members from the reserved categories through continuous recruitments and special recruitment drives carried out through various outreach measures including newspaper advertisements.”

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Newer IIMs: Bodh Gaya, Jammu, Tiruchirapalli

Filling up posts earmarked for tribal communities seems to be a bigger challenge for institutes.

However, two of the newer IIMs – Bodh Gaya and Jammu – have been more successful at finding candidates than others. Bodh Gaya has six SC, four ST and 10 OBC teachers. IIM Jammu leads all other IIMs with 10 SC faculty members.

Source: Parliamentary Panel Report

Faculty Reservation: What IIMs say

Sebastian listed the following challenges in hiring faculty from reserved categories: limited availability of qualified candidates meeting the eligibility norms, particularly in highly specialised areas of management; preference of eligible candidates for positions in other institutions located in metropolitan cities; non-availability of candidates in certain subject areas “despite repeated and widespread national advertisement”.

The shortage, ironically, is related to the historical exclusion of these communities from education and continued exclusion from advanced programmes at top institutions. IIM Kozhikode is trying to address this by first expanding and strengthening its research programme.

“The scarcity of qualified candidates is often linked to the relatively smaller pool of doctoral degree holders from reserved categories in management and related fields,” he said. “This is compounded by the low number of PhD graduates from these categories, especially from premier institutions. The institute continues to explore proactive strategies to address these challenges, including strengthening its doctoral programme to enhance the pipeline of candidates from reserved categories.”

A retired IIM Lucknow professor, however, complained that eligible candidates often leave the country to work in foreign institutions.

“The foreign institutions offer much higher salary packages, so many decide to move on,” he said. “Not many pursue doctoral programmes in management, so the talent available is already limited and there is competition among institutions to fill the posts.” He asked not to be named.

However, in the past, IIMs have opposed faculty reservation, even stating that it “compromises on the quality”. Data obtained by the All India OBC Students Association (AIOBCSA) through Right to Information applications has also revealed that 90% of the faculty at IIMs and the premier engineering colleges, Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), come from the upper-castes. They have been demanding that the education ministry conduct an independent review of the recruitment process at these institutes.

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Faculty quota in IIMs: Govt’s stance

The lack of faculty from reserved categories has been raised in the parliament as starred and unstarred questions multiple times. The government responses have been wildly inconsistent.

In response to one question raised in March 2025, education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, said, “Occurrence of vacancies and filling up posts is a continuous process. Vacancies arise due to retirement, resignation and creation of new posts for dealing with increasing numbers of students. The posts are filled after following due procedures like formulating reservation rosters, advertising the posts, time to be given to apply against these posts, short listing candidates, final selection and other related reasons… All IIMs have been given directions to fill-up faculty positions that are lying vacant by way of a special drive and in a mission mode manner. All IIMs have started the process of recruitment to fill up the vacant posts starting from September 2022 under mission recruitment.”

In another reply Pradhan said, “The recruitment powers vest with the respective Board of Governors (BoGs)/Executive committee/board of management and no active role of the Ministry is involved therein.”

While introducing and passing the IIM Amendment Bill 2023, the government had said it is being brought about to ensure that these institutions follow the constitutional obligations like providing reservation.