Caste impacts in education

28.12.2024 - The Hindu

Atul Kumar, the son of a daily wage worker and from the Scheduled Caste community, lost his seat at IIT Dhanbad after he was unable to pay the seat booking fee of ₹17,500 that was required to secure his admission.

Supreme court intervened by exercising itts extra ordinary power under Article 142 to grant him admission.

But this never draw the attention of the media

Increase in fees in premier institutions

In 2016, the IIT council’s standing committee agreed to increase the undergraduate tuition fees by 200%. This meant a fee increase from ₹90,000 to ₹3 lakh a year.

The frequent hikes in fees have made it increasingly dificult for students from the marginalised communities to afford higher education or even pursue studies through loans

Justification for fee increase by the committee set up

committee set up by the government asserted that students from marginalised communities would benefit from the Vidyalakshmi scheme, which offers interest-free scholarships.

Students ending lives due to increase in fees

In 2021, data showed that over the past seven years, 122 students from the IITs and the IIMs had ended their lives, many due to the financial strain of rising fees and the anxiety of securing employment.

Drop outs due to fees increase

The Human Resources Development Ministry reported that 2,461 students dropped out of IITs in just two years (2017 and 2018).

Over the past five years, more than 13,500 students from the Scheduled Castes (SC), the Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) had dropped out of courses in the central universities, the IITs and the IIMs.

In central universities, 4,596 students from the Other Backward Classes, 2,424 SC students, and 2,622 ST students dropped out during this period.

In the IITs, 2,066 OBC students, 1,068 SC students, and 408 ST students left.

Similarly, the IIMs saw 163 OBC, 188 SC, and 91 ST students drop out over the past five years.

Low representation in faculty positions

A 2019 report by former Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal revealed that 95% of faculty positions in IITs were held by individuals from upper caste backgrounds, with only 5% allocated to SC, ST, and OBC categories,

Low placements in IIT

An RTI filed in 2024 about IIT placements showed that approximately 8,000 students (38%) across 23 IIT campuses remained unplaced this year.