Parliamentary committee raises concerns over SC/ST caste in Indian institutes

The Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of ‘Scheduled Castes’ and ‘Schedule Tribes’ has raised concerns about empty reserved category positions at the ‘All India Institute of Medical Sciences’. The committee stated that numerous SC and ST applicants were "deliberately declared unsuitable" due to "biased assessment" by AIIMS screening panels.

The committee made the suggestions in a report presented to the Lok Sabha. According to the report, the standing selection committee (SSC), which consists of seven people, including the AIIMS Chairman, selects faculty members for AIIMS New Delhi.

“The Committee is concerned to note that none of the members of this committee belong to the SC/ST community,” the report added.

The committee has advised that a member of the SC/ST community be included in the selection committee as a requirement for representation and participation in policies being developed to improve the prospects of SC/ST employees at AIIMS. “Though the Committee are pleased to note that an action plan is being prepared by the union government to fill the vacant faculty posts yet, they are grieved that 348 vacancies of faculty posts are still lying vacant,” it added.

The committee said it is not inclined to accept the frequent stereotypical reply of the government that “no sufficient number of suitable candidates could be found”. “This is, in fact, not a correct picture of the assessment of the SC/ST candidates who are equally bright and deserving. But they are deliberately declared as ‘not suitable’ because of a wrong biased assessment by the selection committee just to deprive SC/ST candidates of their legitimate rights to be part of the faculty,” the committee said in the report.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 16 senior professor positions at AIIMS Delhi became vacant in 2018 as the screening committee considered "candidates not suitable" from the SC/ST and OBC categories. In the following selection procedure in 2022, 12 such positions became vacant due to the same cause.