IIT Kanpur, IIT-BHU Varanasi fall short of reserved faculty quota, RTI reveals

According to the data provided under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, members from the reserved category account for only 13.1% of the working faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and 21.9% at IIT (BHU) Varanasi. The reserved communities make up 76 of 581 working faculty members at IIT Kanpur and 82 of 374 at IIT (BHU) Varanasi, the RTI replies revealed.

However, IIT Kanpur officials said the information was "imprecise", while IIT BHU confirmed the data. Both the premier institutes said they would be able to share a detailed response later.

At IIT Kanpur, the category-wise data shows that 25 faculty members are from the Scheduled Caste (SC), five from the Scheduled Tribe (ST), and 46 from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.

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IIT Kanpur, IIT-BHU faculty representation

At the professor level, the representation at IIT Kanpur remains particularly low. Of the institute's 257 professors, none belong to SC or ST communities, while only three are from the OBC category. The remaining 254 are from the unreserved category.

Among 128 associate professors, there are eight SC, one ST, and seven OBC faculty members. Of the 193 assistant professors, 17 are SC, four are ST, and 36 are OBC.

At IIT-BHU, 30 faculty members are from the SC, five from the ST, and 47 from the OBC category, out of 374 filled positions across the three academic ranks. Of the 129 professors at IIT-BHU, 11 are SC, one ST, and two OBC, while 113 are from the unreserved category.

Two professors are also listed under the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) category. Among 88 associate professors, seven are OBC, and four are SC, with no ST faculty members. Of the 157 assistant professors, 15 are SC, four are ST, and 38 are OBC.

The data also reveals that representation of SC, ST, and OBC faculty is considerably higher at the assistant professor level than at the professor level, particularly at IIT-Kanpur.

IIT-Kanpur has 957 sanctioned faculty positions, of which 376 are vacant, while IIT-BHU has 608 sanctioned positions with 234 vacancies.

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Earlier, in February, an RTI filed by the All India OBC Students Association (AIOBCSA) revealed that the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore has the highest number of faculty from the general category, followed by OBC, but none from SC, ST, and PwD categories.

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IIT-BHU Varanasi's system for faculty posts

IIT-BHU Varanasi said it follows a "flexi cadre system" for faculty positions and therefore category-wise sanctioned and vacant positions could not be calculated.

The information was gathered after responses from two separate RTI applications filed in January by Gowd Kiran Kumar, a Hyderabad resident.

IIT-Kanpur issued its response on February 6, while IIT-BHU responded on February 24.

However, when contacted, IIT Kanpur director Manindra Agrawal suggested the data was inaccurately contextualised. "The information is imprecise, and we will soon come out with a detailed response and facts and share it with the media".

Meanwhile, IIT BHU Public Relations Officer Utkarsh Shrivastava said that the information was correct but added that he would be able to share any further information "tomorrow". With inputs from PTI