Reservation policy being mocked at Banaras Hindu University

After independence, On 26^th Jan 1950 the Constitution of India came into force. The provisions of reservation in government jobs were made for the social upliftment of backward, downstream Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes of society. In the decade of 1950 the population of educated Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes was almost equal to nil. There was complete hold of high caste people in the field of education. By and by social awareness found its place in society and depressed labourers of suppressed society managed to educate their children in adverse conditions, to enable them to get government jobs with the support of reservation. Gradually the standard of education increased and the persons of backward classes found a bit place in government jobs. The so-called high castes and fundamentalists always tried to obstruct the progress of the people belonging to deprived and backward classes, because they opined that if some of these people become educationally advanced, their whole society might be well educated.

Project Vijay, carried a deep study on this issue and targeted the renowned Asia’s no. 1 University, BHU, which was established by Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the backward region of India.

Embracing the RTI Act 2005, Mahendra Pratap Singh, Secretary PROJECT VIJAY sought information regarding the vacancies and backlogs in the posts of Professor, Associate Professor & Assistant Professor existing among Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes & other backward communities. The position which was conveyed was surprising and serious. There are 594 Professors in BHU out of which the number of Professors in the Scheduled Castes category is only two, rest all belong to General category. The figure of Associate Professor is 319, out of which only 22 belong to Scheduled Castes and only one to Scheduled Tribes and ten belonging to Other Backward Class, rest of all belong to general category. For the post of Reader there are 44 teachers all of them occupied by the so called high caste people. The figure of Assistant Professor is 388, out of which 79 belong to Scheduled Castes category, 23 to Scheduled Tribes and only 19 goes to Other Backward Class.

As per the provision of reservation the seats ensured for Scheduled Castes is 15%, for Scheduled Tribes 7.5% & for OBC 27%. As is evident from BHU’s letter no. AA/VI-RAC/304 dated 17.09.2010, the backlog vacancies for the post of Professor is 52 for Scheduled Castes, 25 for Scheduled Tribes and 102 posts of Associate Professor for Scheduled Castes, 51 for Scheduled Tribes. Further 109 backlog vacancies for the post of Assistant Professor for SC and 77 for Scheduled Tribes has been pointed.

The Ministry of Personal and Training, Government of India (DoPT) 2005, after the UPA Government came in power in centre, has been issuing orders to fill up the backlog vacancies through the special recruitment from time to time but it lacked sincere implementation. An official memorandum has been issued to fill up the backlog through the special recruitment drive vide DoPT order no. 36038/1/2008 dated 20.12.2010. But it seems all these orders are only to befool the depressed class. The truth is far-far away. If such a contrast prevails in a university like BHU, the position of other universities can be easily imagined.

PROJECT VIJAY is one by one collecting the figures of reservation status from all the Central universities, Central Educational Institutes, Central Research Institutes etc. and will very soon prepare a detailed report of the reservation status thereof, which will clarify the propaganda adopted by our leaders to uplift the backward and downstream  peoples of the our society. All are sailing in the same boat, be they NDA, UPA or other state governments.

This report has been published in the national monthly magazine Dialogue India in the April edition. As a result of the report just after a week the Hon’ble Minister of Human Resource & Development Mr. Kapil Sibbal issued orders to fill up these vacancies at the earliest.