india

Updated: Nov 21, 2019 02:16 IST

The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has mandated that the 20 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) prepare rosters and begin to follow in all recruitments for faculty positions from now on, the mandated reservation for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes and the economically weaker sections.

The IIMs have not been following the norms thus far.

In an official order issued on Wednesday, the HRD ministry’s department of higher education said the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act was notified on July 9 to provide for reservation in teaching positions following which the HRD ministry also issued a notification.

In line with these norms, the HRD order asked the IIMs to ensure compliance.

“Any further recruitment has to be done as per the roster prepared,” the order said.

Significantly, the IIMs during consultations with the ministry, opposed the idea of reservation for teachers on their campuses citing a shortage of eligible candidates belonging to these sections.

HT first reported on Monday that worried by the poor representation of people from such sections in teaching positions, the Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank-led HRD ministry had decided to write to the IIMs asking them to implement the reservation policy.

According to HRD ministry data, the number of teachers from reserved sections in the IIMs is unacceptably low.

Of all the teachers in IIMs, the number of general category teachers stands at 96 %.

The data shows that among the older IIMs like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Lucknow, there were not even a dozen candidates belonging to the weaker sections.

“The IIMs have been referring to a communication dated 1975 which allowed technical and scientific institutions to hire faculty of their choice. The IIMs have been using this communiqué to justify their non-implementation of reservation provisions. However, the ministry order now clearly specifies that this order supersedes any previous communication regarding reservation in IIMs. It is clear these B-schools will have to implement reservation,” said a senior HRD ministry official.

A senior functionary of IIM Bangalore said on condition of anonymity that though he has not yet examined the order, the IIMs would also have to fulfill the national and constitutional requirements while also ensuring that they provide quality education.

“There is no reason that we should not move in that direction. But IIM Bangalore already has been proactively seeking candidates from weaker sections. Now, we will have to see in terms of implementation…So far we have done with a proactive effort. Going forward we will have to do that more.”