After five ad-hoc faculty members of the Sociology Department at Indraprastha College for Women (IPCW), the University of Delhi were sacked amid the en masse displacement at the university, sociologists’ organisation Applied Worldwide has extended its support to the displaced faculty members.

In an online blog published by the organisation on Tuesday, October 3, the organisation wrote, “The five displaced teachers shaped the department into the supportive, intellectual space it is today over the last six years since its inception. They were running the department and built it from the bottom up. But to their surprise, their dedication to the department was not met with the opportunity for promotion when new positions became available.”

Applied Worldwide is a publication which publishes conversations around and about sociology. Its aim is to provide educational resources that allow people, with or without sociological training, to experience their lives through a ‘sociological perspective.’

What happened?

On Sunday, October 1, the University of Delhi sacked five ad-hoc faculty members from the Indraprastha College for Women (IPCW) from the Sociology Department, and replaced them with permanent faculty, allegedly with those who have fewer qualifications and follow a certain ‘ideology’.

According to the teachers, ad-hoc displacements have been going on at DU over the past few months, after the recruitment drive began. Before IP College, ad-hoc faculty at Satyawati, Dayal Singh, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce and other colleges were replaced.

Several teachers’ associations from Delhi University have called out these arbitrary displacements.