Only one vice-chancellor across central universities in the country belongs to the Scheduled Castes (SC) community, one to the Schedule Tribes (ST) community while seven are from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, according to data from the Ministry of Education.

Similarly, two registrars in central universities belong to the SC community, five to the ST community and three registrars belong to the OBC community, as stated in a report by PTI. 

The statistics from 45 central universities were shared by Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar in response to a written question in Lok Sabha. The question was asked whether the deprived social categories like SCs, STs and OBCs are adequately represented in the central varsities.

As per data till April 1, 1,306 out of 12,373 teachers in 45 central universities belong to the SC community, 568 (ST) and 1,740 (OBC) while 8,386 are from the general category. Among the non-teaching staff in central universities, 2,063 out of 22,096 staff members belong to SC category, 1,186 (ST), 2,342 (OBC) and 16,132 belong to General category.

"Government of India has enacted the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Act, 2019 to ensure adequate representation of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWSs)," Sarkar said.