Half of India's Central Universities still fail to fill SC, ST quotas in 2019, reveals HRD Ministry  

Almost half of the Central Universities in the country don't fill the required quota for SC (15%) and ST (7.5%) students. As far as OBC (27%) reservation is concerned, the numbers are pretty similar as well, according to information shared by Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal. Even as India approaches its 75th year of Independence, Universities are unable to fill up the reserved seats — the common reason given is that not enough students from each category applied.

The data was shared by Pokhriyal in the Rajya Sabha in response to a question raised by Elamaram Kareem, MP from Kerala, regarding reservation in central universities in the country. His questions were — if the proportion of reservation as per the CEI Act, 2006 is being followed, the proportion of students in central universities and other national institutes, details of action taken by the ministry against those violating the proposed reservations and by when the targeted reservation is expected to be attained.

According to the data, out of 40 Central Universities, a whopping 19 don't fulfill the combined quota  (22.5%) allotted to SC, ST students — 17 don't fulfil the OBC quota. According to the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 provides for reservation of 15 percent seats in admission in each branch of study or faculty for the Scheduled Castes (SCs), 7.5 percent for Scheduled Tribes (STs) and 27 percent for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). 

Surprisingly, even the big institutes like Delhi University, JNU, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry University, Banaras Hindu University, Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Central University of Karnataka, Central University of Kerala have failed to fill up the quota. Hyderabad University just about scrapped through with the SC, ST quota but did reasonably well with their OBC quota with about eight percent more than the required numbers. The Indira Gandhi National Tribal University managed to pass the mark.

However, out of the 21 Universities that managed to hit the mark, eight were from the North Eastern regions that are largely tribal regions. However, these Universities have failed to fill their SC quota. The other Universities that have filled their quotas are Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University and Central University of Orissa among others.

Other universities that haven't filled their quota — ostensibly because they have a minority quota to fill — are varsities such as AMU, Jamia Millia Islamia, Universities of Jammu and Kashmir and Maulana Azad National Urdu University.