Parliamentary Panel Raises Concerns Over Bias Against SC/ST Candidates In Faculty Appointments

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates are deliberately declared “not suitable” for appointment as faculty members in educational institutions because of “biased” assessment by selection panels, a parliamentary panel has said.

The Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes submitted in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday its report on the “role of autonomous bodies/educational institution including central universities, engineering colleges, IIMs, IITs, medical institutes, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Kendriya Vidyalayas in socio-economic development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.”

The panel said it is not inclined to accept the “stereotype” reply of the government that sufficient number of suitable candidates could not be found.

“This is in fact not a correct picture of assessment of the SC/ST candidates who are equally bright and deserving. But they are deliberately declared as ‘not suitable’ because of wrong biased assessment by the Selection Committee just to deprive SC/ST candidates of their legitimate rights to be…faculty members,” according to the report.

Selection Committee has no member from ST/SC community

The panel headed by Lok Sabha MP Kirit Premjibhai Solanki noted that the selection for faculty posts at the AIIMS, New Delhi is made by the Standing Selection Committee consisting of seven members, including chairman.

“The committee is concerned to note that none of the members of this committee belongs to SC/ST community…members from SC/ST community should be mandatorily included in the selection committee in order to provide representation and to participate in policies being framed to enhance the prospects of SC/ST employees in AIIMS,” it said.