With few Dalit, Adivasi teachers, IITs, IIMs lack ‘environment of empathy’: AIOBCSA president

NEW DELHI: Since 2018, the All India OBC Students Association (AIOBCSA) has filed hundreds of applications under the Right to Information Act (RTI) to understand the extent of inclusion – or, exclusion – that India’s historically-marginalised communities face in higher educational institutions.

What they found was startling – India’s top institutions, Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, and central universities barely implemented the central reservation policy in admission of research scholars and appointment of teachers. Swathes of seats and posts earmarked for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (SC, ST, OBC) remained vacant.

The AIOBCSA was born out of a group called the United OBC Forum, which worked in Jawaharlal Nehru University and University of Hyderabad, in 2015-16. However, it became a full-fledged association in 2017, after the death by suicide of UOH research scholar Rohith Vemula galvanised hundreds of students across campuses into action, pushing them to speak up on caste.

Registered in 2021 as a society, the organisation now has around 2,500 registered members and is led by Kiran Kumar Gowd, a PhD scholar in political science at Hyderabad University. Gowd spoke to Careers360, about caste discrimination on campuses, the slow pace of hiring of reserved-category faculty and the impact it has on students. Edited excerpts:

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AIOBCSA has been constantly filing Right-to-Information (RTI) queries on the implementation of reservation policies in faculty recruitment. Institutes don’t seem to be following them.

Our first level of fight is to get data in hand – such as the caste profiles in institutes and other important data – so that we can convince the public, media, and stakeholders.

Similarly, we filed RTIs for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and central universities which informed us that there are very few professors and associate professors [from marginalised groups]. That's where we fought – submitted representations and protested.

In comparison to 2018 [when the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was amended] – that’s when we started filling RTIs – there has been significant improvement in the number of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Castes (OBC) researchers and teachers joining central universities. We are currently concentrating on IITs and IIMs which have very pathetic numbers in terms of representation of SC, ST and OBCs.

Our second fight is through representations – by meeting members of parliament and raising this issue in parliament, ministries and the prime minister, because they are the decision-makers. We also meet the directors of these IITs and IIMs.

Our third fight is through protest. We have been continuously organising protests on this matter. Many faculty members from SC, SC and OBCs have left their institute to join others.

There are serious violations of the fundamental rights of marginalised people on campus so we have protested and widely covered in the media. We are trying everything to make institutions more diversified and inclusive in different parts of the country.

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What is going on with the IIM Bangalore caste discrimination case?

We recently did a protest at IIM Bangalore where nothing is happening in a case of caste-based discrimination on campus, raised by the institute’s faculty member, Gopal Das. Many like Das, who are reserved-category professors have not been given promotions but rather, one of them has been demoted from associate professor to assistant professor because they are constantly representing the issue of discrimination within the campus. Instead of correcting their own mistakes, the institute is blaming the whistleblowers. A high court case was also filed in this regard.

In December, IIM Bangalore director, Rishikesha T Krishnan, and seven others from the institute were charged with caste-based discriminatory practices and a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against these people for atrocities on SC/ST people on campus. But they received relief from the arrest and prosecution, which should not have happened.

Discrimination has created a hostile environment for marginalised students. There is suppression of democratic voices. It's a typical case. We had written to the President of India and the ministry of education as well on this matter.

We are trying hard to ensure that the director and other people who have discriminated against people should be prosecuted and removed from the institute. These are not rhetorical demands but have had lots of pain, evidence, sweat and blood poured into them to ensure an inclusive space for people on campus.

We have been supported by ST, SC and OBC organisations in Bengaluru who have joined in this fight in a big way. We strongly feel that Bahujan, ST, SC and other OBC organisations must unite and protest against these kinds of atrocities.

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Your RTIs have highlighted that many IIMs have vacant reserved teaching posts. What has been the response?

After media houses published the RTI data, I received many calls from faculty members, especially from assistant professors, adding to the data. Many told their own stories and shared their pain with me, including PhD scholars in IITs and IIMs.

Another concern that has been raised by many of these scholars who are about to complete or have completed their tenure, is that their institutes are not recruiting them. This implies that something is seriously missing in these institutions and they are not following the reservation policies. This shows that these institutes are casteist; they are not taking their own scholars.

We are coordinating with several organizations like Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA), Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar National Association of Engineers (BANAE), OBC Employees Federations and other sister- organisations.

Now the ball is in the court of the institute and the government to immediately act on these issues of ST, SC, and OBC candidates. The government should not just raise slogans but should translate them into numbers and action.

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How do you think the vacant posts issue impacts the undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate students from reserved categories?

These reserved category vacant seats, if filled up, would have guided around at least five to six PhD scholars, especially from marginalised categories. But in absence of this, it will impact PhD intake and access for these groups of students to higher education.

Also, all the equal opportunity cells, which are especially for SC, ST, and OBC students, will only work when there is a good number of faculty members from this community.

Also, the representation of reserved category faculties in universities shall enable an environment of empathy towards these students, because of same lived experiences at the grassroots level, different from those of affluent and privileged communities.

Further, news related to vacant seats, suicides, caste atrocities, and discrimination emerging from universities has indirectly has created fear in the minds. Rohith Vemula’s death had a huge impact on the minds of many students. These things are adding on to the larger issues of caste atrocities, suicides related to caste-based discrimination, financial and social stress, and faculty stress. All contribute to the academic environment in the universities.

We strongly believe that these universities are not level playing fields because students coming from marginalised communities and those from affluent and English-trained students, all come together and compare each other. Earlier, we had some support systems; during the tenure of former UGC chairman Sukhadeo Thorat, he tried to give a support system for students. However, now many of these systems don’t even exist on paper.

We can only strengthen all these mechanisms through faculty recruitment because they will actually sit in the administrative positions, maybe as chief warden, dean students welfare or others.

How are you further strengthening your network and mobilising?

For these issues, we have built a network because we also feel that many of the left-wing student organisations of CPIM and others, like the National Student Union of India (NSUI), and others are not taking much action on these issues.

However, the DMK student organisations are active. We want a solidarity network of ST, SC and OBC organisations and even the India Alliance student organisations. We request them to join the fight because they have the network, strength and backup. We want them to join this network so that we can effectively raise these issues on different platforms.

We are also discussing with our network of advocates what legal course is open to us and how to draft our requests to the ministry, President and prime minister in the future.

How do you look at delays in the UGC-NET examinations?

There have been delays in every way and nothing is functioning right. There has been a delay of months in the UGC NET exam. The PhD admissions through UGC NET have been delayed; where they should have begun in April-May, they started in December, 2024.

Then, all of a sudden, UGC came up with a circular that all universities must have PhD admissions based on NET scores, which is a wrong imposition on academia and universities.

Each day brings a new circular – no assistantship is required for a professorship or no publication is required for an assistant professorship – still, quality is emphasised. They are not promoting an autonomous way of functioning.

The UGC is coming up with ideas without discussing them with stakeholders or students. This imposition will not work out. Many students' and scholars' careers have been hampered because of sudden circulars. It's unfair!

We have protested against this, demanding a transformation, especially in the education system. To attain this, a solidary network is of utmost importance.

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There has been a constant delay in the disbursement of scholarships for National Fellowship for OBC students. What is happening there?

This is a long-term demand of our organisation. Thousands of NFOBC scholars have been facing delays in the disbursement of scholarships, of six months to one year. Each day we receive many calls on this.

We requested the University Grants Commission to look into this issue and they transferred the problem to the ministry of social justice and empowerment. Even in the era of technology, and digital governance and people are connected through applications and Aadhar cards, we don't know why there is a delay in disbursements. I don't know whether they are getting some interest through these delays. However many scholars are in a pathetic situation because their research work is stalled.

Scholars have to do fieldwork and have to do some lab work and their money is on hold. Due to this, they are facing mental stress. We have requested the MSJE, education ministry and UGC to immediately disburse the scholarships promptly at least every three months, so scholars' work is not stalled.

Also, UGC guidelines require scholars to complete their research work within five-plus-one years. So, the delay is problematic. If in the union budget session of 2025, this issue is not resolved, we have planned a protest.

If you know someone – friend or family member – at risk of suicide, please reach out to them. Those in distress or having suicidal thoughts or tendencies could seek help and counselling by calling 9820466726 or visiting AASRA’s official website or can call iCALL on 9152987821. Here are some more helpline numbers of suicide prevention organisations that can offer emotional support to individuals and families.