Published by: Sheen Kachroo
Last updated: September 2, 2023, 4:13 PM IST
Even though there were many candidates from the unreserved categories, only 9 percent of SC seats and 3 percent of ST seats in the 2023 PhD admissions were reportedly filled
The Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle has accused the IIT Bombay of “denying 80 seats to candidates from SC, ST and OBC
According to information obtained through a Right To Information (RTI) request, the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) has accused the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay of “denying 80 seats to candidates from Scheduled Castes (SC) , Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC), while an additional 95 general category students will be admitted for PhD admissions in 2023.
Despite claiming to enforce the reservation policy, the APPSC claims that “IIT Bombay has broken it again when it comes to PhD admissions,” according to Careers360. In five wards of IIT Bombay, the APPSC revealed that no ST candidates had been accepted in the previous eight years.
Reportedly, the latest RTI response states that five departments have no OBC candidates in 2023, while five departments have no SC students and twenty departments have no ST students enrolled.
In a series of tweets on X (formerly known as Twitter), APPSC said, “Despite claiming they are implementing it, @iitbombay has again broken reservation standards in PhD admissions this year. They denied the seats of 80 SC ST OBC students and gave them to savarnas. Some departments did not accept any Bahujan students.” (SIC)
Despite enough students from each category passing the written test and showing up for interviews, the seats allocated to marginalized categories remained empty, according to the APPSC report. The Study Circle underlines the need to hold institutions accountable for these inconsistencies, Careers360 reports.
Even though there were many candidates from the unreserved categories, only 9 percent of SC seats and 3 percent of ST seats in the 2023 PhD admissions were reportedly filled. The data showed that, compared to the number of admissions in the general categories, the number of SC and ST admissions was still disproportionately low in relation to the number of seats available.
As per the APPSC RTI response, below is the number of students admitted in each category in 2023 to pursue PhD at IIT Bombay:
Scheduled cabinets
Vacancy: 63
Applied: 899
Interviewed: 794
Granted: 36
Planned tribes
Vacancy: 34
Applied: 214
Interviewed: 182
Granted: 12
Other backward classes
Vacancy: 114
Applied: 1966
Interviewed: 1,672
Granted: 83
General category
Vacancy: 168
Applied: 4,407
Interviewed: 3,716
Granted: 263