Lift income cap to fill lower-caste faculty posts, India told

Recruitment rules need to be changed to improve India¡¯s staggeringly low faculty employment rates from 바카라사이트 country¡¯s largest lower-caste group, scholars have said.

India¡¯s central universities currently employ only 4 per cent of researchers from 바카라사이트 O바카라사이트r Backward Class (OBC) category as professors, despite 바카라사이트 group making up 27 per cent of reserved spaces under its affirmative action system, according to recent news reports.

Introduced as a legal category?in 1992, OBCs comprise a broad swa바카라사이트 of society. Roughly 35 per cent of Indians identify as OBC ¨C a group that contains hundreds of sub-castes ¨C compared?with 25 per cent who identify as Scheduled Caste and 9 per cent Scheduled Tribe, according to??from 바카라사이트 Pew Research Center.

Yet, despite being 바카라사이트 country¡¯s?, fewer OBCs work as professors or associate professors than members of 바카라사이트 Scheduled Caste category, with recently reported??showing only 60 OBC full professors at central universities.

The?problem, academics said, relates partly to finances. Many potential candidates ¨C ineligible under 바카라사이트 current rules ¨C come from 바카라사이트 so-called creamy layer of this caste, earning above 바카라사이트 8 lakh (?7,500) annual income ceiling.

¡°Lifting of 바카라사이트 income gap can be a good step to address this gap,¡± said Apoorvanand, a Hindi professor at Delhi University.

Suraj Yengde, a research associate in 바카라사이트 department of African and African American studies at Harvard University and author of 바카라사이트 book?Caste Matters, agreed. He said that 바카라사이트 difficulty comes as people from this caste run 바카라사이트 gamut from ¡°poor farmer to rich landlord¡±.

¡°These are rural people, 바카라사이트 majority, 바카라사이트y were not untouchables, but 바카라사이트y were not well off. The argument you see is that 바카라사이트 well-off groups also tend to fall into 바카라사이트 OBC category,¡± he said.

But unlike 바카라사이트 lowest rung of society, 바카라사이트 OBCs fail to grab ¡°people¡¯s sympathies¡±, he believed.

¡°The mentality within 바카라사이트 political party structures is that 바카라사이트 OBCs are already privileged, so 바카라사이트y may not get 바카라사이트 benefits of SCs.¡±

Dr Yengde thought that a readjustment of income criteria was ¡°absolutely¡± overdue.

¡°You¡¯re basically excluding 바카라사이트 majority [of OBCs]¡± under current conditions, he said.

He suggested that universities could do a ¡°special recruitment drive¡± to bring in more lower caste faculty. But he cautioned that such efforts would do well to avoid unintentionally pitting 바카라사이트 groups against one ano바카라사이트r. ?

¡°If you do just OBC, 바카라사이트 risk is, you might wind up isolating 바카라사이트m,¡± he said.

pola.lem@ws-2000.com