The government on Tuesday directed the IIMs to implement reservation in faculty recruitment as the top B-schools continue to evade compliance by citing quality concerns.
At the first meeting of the IIM Coordination Forum, higher education secretary Vineet Joshi said the B-schools were required to implement 27 per cent quota for OBCs, 15 per cent for SCs and 7.5 per cent for STs in faculty recruitment as well as PhD admissions.
The IIMs have lagged in implementing the reservation policy in recruitment. (See chart)
In PhD admissions, some of the IIMs are yet to comply with the reservation mandate.
At the meeting, some IIM directors raised the issue of quality when Joshi asked them to suggest ways to implement the quota policy.
“Some directors said they would not like to compromise with the quality of hiring. They said they were not getting talented candidates in the SC, ST and OBC categories,” said a source who attended the meeting.
All India OBC Students Association president Kiran Kumar, who obtained data on the vacancies in SC, ST and OBC posts at IIMs through an RTI application last year, said there had been little change in the representation of marginalised groups despite a strident campaign for greater diversity in higher education institutions.
“The situation in IIMs is particularly alarming. Through RTIs, we found that nearly 80 per cent of SC, ST and OBC faculty positions remain vacant, and not a single IIM has made its reservation rosters public. We demand that the education ministry immediately constitute a committee to investigate these reservation violations and take stringent action against IIMs for their deliberate non-compliance,” Kumar said.
Joshi also told the IIM heads to encourage students to set up enterprises after completing their courses to help achieve the Viksit Bharat mission by 2047.