After successfully introducing quota for the Other Backward Caste (OBC) students in higher education, the Indian government has now directed all branches of the Indian Institutes of Technology to immediately introduce quotas in the teaching faculty too for the SC, ST and OBCs. Apparently the IIT directors are very angry with this decision of the HRD ministry, but none of them have stepped forward to express this forthrightly. There lie no two opinions to the fact that the high-quality of the teaching faculty in the IITs has resulted in building the institution into a prestigious international brand.

‘It is hard to imagine that even teachers will now use the caste flag to get in,’ commented a Delhi-based IIT professor on this issue. The government order dated June 9 pertaining the incorporation of faculty quota has been forwarded to all IITs. This order prescribes introduction of 15 per cent quota for Scheduled Caste, 7.5 per cent for Scheduled Tribe and 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Castes in teaching positions of the IITs. At the moment, the IITs have reservations in the administrative posts from the level of attendants to deputy registrar. But there is no reservation for the teaching staff.

The government directive lays down that the posts will be reserved for lecturers and assistant professors in subjects such as science and technology. There will be reservation upto the post of a professor in management, social sciences and humanities. The HRD ministry has further mentioned that the premier technological institutions of India can dereserve the posts after the passage of a year incase they don’t get filled up by then ‘despite all efforts’. Insiders opine that the fairness on which the IIT brand thrives will get badly upset by this decision of the government.