Violation Of PhD Reservation Policy: Dalit Students Denied Seats In Nine IIMs

New Delhi: A students’ body at IIT Bombay has alleged that as many as nine Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have violated the reservation norms for PhD admissions. According to data collected from the last five years by Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) through an RTI, a total of 188 Dalit Bahujan Adivasi students were denied seats in the IIMs, said a News18 report.

According to legal requirements, 15 per cent of the seats must be reserved for SC candidates, 7.5 per cent for ST, 27 per cent for OBC candidates, 7.5 per cent for ST, 27 per cent for OBC candidates belonging to the “Non-Creamy Layer” (NCL-OBC), up to 10 per cent for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) candidates and 5 per cent for Persons with Disabilities (PwD).

The students collective has revealed on Twitter the proportion of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Caste (OBC) categories students in nine different IIMs. “RTI data obtained from 9 IIMs show that they have been violating the reservation norms in PhD admissions. 188 dalit bahujan adivasi students were denied their rightful seats in the last 5 years,” it tweeted.

The nine IIMs include IIM Lucknow, Kozhikode, Raipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Indore, Shillong, Rohtak, and Kashipur.

As per the RTI data obtained by the APPSC, the maximum number of students taking admission in IIMs belonged to the general category. Out of a total of 110 seats reserved for SC, 40 have been admitted and 70 denied admission. In the ST category, out of 55 seats reserved, only 13 were admitted and 42 were denied. In OBC, which has the highest reservation out of the three, 123 students were admitted out of a total of `99 and 76 were denied admission, the report added.