The parliamentary standing committee for the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has decided to call the heads of Central educational institutions to enquire about the lack of representation of SC, ST, OBC students in higher education institutions. The committee was formed on May 1 and is headed by Lok Sabha MP Dr Kirit Premjibhai Solanki.

"The committee met for the first time on Thursday," Solanki told EdexLive. "We have decided to call the heads of institutes to investigate the low number of students from SC, ST and OBC communities. We are yet to decide the date of hearing, however," he said.

A series of RTIs filed by various student political organisations in the recent past had brought out the starking low numbers in the enrolment of students and appointment of faculty from SC, ST and OBC communities. Following this, a committee headed by the IIT Delhi Director Dr Ramgopal Rao was appointed to look into the issue. "I am yet to look at the data in detail, but we will take an appropriate call soon. This government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is pro-reservations," Solanki said.

The Students' Federation of India (SFI), the CPIM's students' wing, too had actively campaigned against this issue. This was after two CPIM MPs, Elamaram Kareem and K Somparasad had obtained the data on the low number of SC and ST students in IITs. Somaprasad is also part of the new parliamentary standing committee. Recently, the organisation had submitted letters about this. Somaprasad and Lok Sabha MP Su Venkitesan about the same.