SC-ST cells at 16 of 19 IITs are defunct, RTI data finds

Though the Centre claims that 19 of the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) have dedicated cells for the welfare of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe (SC-ST) students, 16 of them are non-functional, data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed.

Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), a students’ association based at IIT Bombay, has demanded action against directors of these institutes through a social media post that has tagged education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Kirit Solanki, chairman, Parliamentary Committee for SC/ST Welfare.

Four institutes - IIT BHU, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Mandi, and IIT (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad - don’t have SC/ST cells.

Further, of the 19 cells, 18 have no funds allocated, and 16 have not conducted any events since August 2022. As many as 12 cells have no room allotted for meetings and discussions and 10 of them - IIT Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Tirupati, Goa, Hyderabad, Ropar, Patna, and Jammu - do not have information about the reservation or a mechanism to check the quota implementation, the RTI application, filed by APPSC, has found.

“None of the cells explicitly mention that the reservation is under their purview. Only IIT Bhubaneswar and Delhi mention the quota on their websites,” a member of APPSC said.

While five IITs have mentioned the SC-ST cells on their main webpages, IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay have maintained separate websites.

The lack of operational SC-ST cells has come under scrutiny following the suicide of a first-year Dalit student at IIT-B in February 2023, leading to allegations of caste-based discrimination on the campus. In addition, a reply in the Lok Sabha in March said that 33 student suicides had been reported across IITs in the last five years.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked higher educational institutions to take measures against discrimination on campus. “While ST/SC cells are only on paper, the education ministry should make sure that all IITs implement the UGC guidelines and set up anti-discrimination cells, implement the reservation properly, and conduct sensitisation events,” the social media post by APPSC read.

Another member of the association said, “Even after the suicides at IIT-B and IIT-M, we are not serious about the SC/ST cell. The institutes must take cognisance and act accordingly to give relief to SC/ST students.”