Cases of caste discrimination have again been reported in higher education. According to official figures, over thirteen thousand students, belonging to the marginalised castes, have dropped out from the central universities during the last five years.
According to a recent report published in The Indian Express (December 5), the total number of students who have dropped out of the central university is 13626. The students, who have dropped out from the central universities, come from SCs, STs and OBCs backgrounds. They have been enrolled at different branches of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
The dropout figures have recently been given by Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar in a written reply to the Parliament. According to him, as many as 13,626 Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Class (OBC) students have dropped out of central universities such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in the last five years.
Providing the details about the dropout cases, the minister said that 4596 OBC, 2424 SC, and 2622 ST students left the courses in the middle from the central universities. Giving university-wise figures, he said that the dropout figure in the IITs was 2066 OBC, 1068 SC and 408 ST students. While the IIMs saw 163 OBC, 188 SC and 91 ST candidates leave the course without completing them.
The Narendra Modi Government diverted the issue in the wrong direction and denied the prevalent rampant caste-based discrimination in higher education. To hide the Government’s failure to address the deep rot within the educational system, it tossed up the issue of “choice”. For example, Minister of State for Education Sarkar said “In the Higher Education sector, students have multiple options and they choose to migrate across institutions and from one course/programme to another in the same institution. The migration/withdrawal if any, is mainly on account of securing seats by the students in other departments or institutions of their choice or on any personal ground.” But the ground reality is different from the logic given by Sarkar.
The BJP and the RSS have tried hard to woo marginalised castes by portraying Prime Minister Modi as an OBC face, who rose to the top position from scratch. However, Hindutva forces have done very little to democratise the educational system and give adequate representation to the marginalised castes, Adivasis and minorities. The rapid pace of privatisation within the educational sectors and the penetration of the Hindutva forces within the educational sectors have further strengthened the power of the upper castes and classes, resulting in further exclusion of the marginalised communities at different levels.
For example, a recent study has shown that the enrolment rate of Muslim youths has also gone down significantly in higher education. According to available figures, while the total number of enrolment of Muslim youth was 21.01 lakhs in 2019-20, it has declined to 19.22 lakhs in 2020-21. While this should be a serious concern for policy-makers because Muslim students are highly underrepresented in higher education as well as public employment, the Modi Government does not miss any opportunity to cut the budge on minority education.
Multiple reasons can be cited for the decline in the enrolment rate: the large share of Muslim community work in informal sectors, which were hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Muslims remain mired in poverty and have very little access to financial resources. Since the fees are ever increasing in higher education and Muslim youths face institutional discrimination, the decline and the dropout are likely to happen.
Not only students from marginalised castes who are trying to obtain admission to various courses but also the candidates who are looking for employment for teaching jobs, face caste discrimination. For example, Dr Laxman Yadav, who has taught Hindi at Zakir Hussain College of Delhi University for as long as 14 years on an ad hoc basis, has been terminated from the service.
Prof Laxman Yadav, who has been a popular speaker against caste discrimination and communal ideology on social media platforms, has alleged that he has been fired from the job without giving any specific reason by the department. In a social media post, the “expelled” assistant professor said that “he had to pay the price for speaking the truth” to the power.
Prof Yadav, an OBC, belongs to Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh. He studied at Allahabad University before joining the Delhi University. Social justice activists across the country are agitated to see that Prof Yadav was expelled on December 6 when the nation was paying tribute to Baba Saheb Ambedkar.
These examples are manifestations of clear caste bias. Three decades after the implementation of the OBC reservation, the proportion of OBC professors at 45 central universities is just 4%. At the associate professors and assistant professors levels, the bleak scenario does not change much as their share increases slightly to 6% and 14%, respectively.
Apart from OBCs, Adivasis are highly under-represented. Among the professors, the share of Adivasis is only 1.6%, while they are given 7.5% reservation. Similarly, at associate and assistant professors levels, they can get a mere 2% and 4%representation, respectively. With 7% (professors level), 8% (assistant professors level), and 11% (associate professors level) share, Dalits are better than Adivasis but these figures are far less than the 15% reservation given to them.
Even at the level of vice-chancellorship, the candidates belonging to the marginalised castes are highly underrepresented. Most of the central and state universities as well as private universities have been headed by privileged caste vice-chancellors, while Adivasis, Dalits, OBCs and candidates are few.
This shows that the marginalised communities from the lower level to the higher level continue to face discrimination. This creates a vicious cycle. Since the candidates belonging to SC, ST, OBC, and minority categories are unrepresented in teaching and administration, the students from subaltern backgrounds face caste discrimination at the hands of the upper caste teachers.
Privileged caste professors, by using caste networks that are well in place, can secure a better place for their candidates, while the marginalised castes are left without any such support. From the interview board to the classroom, from the dissertation writing process to a job interview, SC, ST, OBCs, minority and women candidates face multiple layers of caste discrimination and humiliation. This is largely responsible for the high dropout rates.
(Dr. Abhay Kumar is a Delhi-based journalist. He has taught political sciences at NCWEB Centres of Delhi University.)