Amit Khare asks HEIs to fill up vacant SC, ST, OBC, EWS faculty positions in 'mission mode' by 2022

The Ministry of Education has asked the heads of the Central Higher Education Institutions (CHEIs) to fill up faculty positions lying vacant, especially the ones earmarked for SC, ST, OBC and EWS categories, in a "Mission Mode" within a year — from September 5, 2021 to September 4, 2022.

Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare wrote to the Directors of all IITs, NITs, IIITs, IIMs, Vice-Chancellors of all Central Universities and the heads of all centrally funded institutes on August 24 with the order. The institutes have to also log in the progress of this particular issue in the Annual Reports and send monthly reports on the status of requirements to him. The issue has to be logged in as an agenda in every major meeting with the status of filling up of the backlogs.

The All India OBC Students' Association AIOBCSA thanked the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for taking steps towards filling all OBC, SC, ST and EWS vacant faculty positions. "The progressive and proactive step by the Minister of Education will be a revolutionary move if the policy decision is implemented with the spirit and commitment to make the academic institutions inclusive and diversified," said the AIOBCSA. "It is the responsibility of the VCs and Directors not to use the "None Found Suitable (NFS)" option in spite of having required SC, ST, OBC and EWS applications. The rosters of Teaching and Non-Teaching positions shall be kept in the public domain for maintaining accountability and transparency," read a statement from the students' body.

"There are 4821 OBC, 2608 SC and 1344 ST faculty positions are vacant in 45 Central Universities, IGNOU and research institutions like IISER and IISc. There will be another 5000 vacancies in the CHEIs. The long standing demand of the marginalised and poor sections to make the academic institutions more inclusive and accessible will be addressed if all the SC, ST and OBC positions are filled. Strengthening of SC, ST, OBC cells will help in reducing the caste discriminations in the academic institutions," said Kiran Kumar, President, AIOBCSA.