IIT Bombay RTI Reveals No Scheduled Tribe Faculty Members At Professor Level, 450 Teaching Posts Vacant

In a response to a Right to Information (RTI) application, IIT Bombay disclosed a lack of Scheduled Tribe (ST) representation among its 412 professors as of September 10th. The institute reported having five professors from the Scheduled Caste (SC) category and six from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The total sanctioned teaching strength stood at 1,225 posts, but 450 positions remained vacant.

At the associate professor level, five out of 176 faculty members belonged to the SC category, one was ST, and six were OBC. Among the 187 assistant professors, 24 were SC, seven were ST, and 29 were OBC. Notably, one assistant professor belonged to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category.

The report, provided by Gowd Kiran Kumar, chair of the All India OBC Students Association, highlighted the slow progress in faculty representation for SC members, with only a one-person increase since February. Kumar also expressed concerns about the institute's ability to address the challenges faced by students from marginalized communities, given the low number of faculty members from these groups.

Separate recruitment data indicated that in 2023, IIT Bombay selected four SC candidates from 523 applicants, while no ST or OBC candidates were selected. In 2024, the institute selected two SC candidates from 44 applicants, one ST candidate from 22, and three OBC candidates from 106. The RTI findings did not provide a category-wise breakdown of the sanctioned or vacant posts, making it difficult to determine the exact number of vacancies in each reservation category.