'Over 13,600 SC/ST/OBC students dropped out'

NT Correspondent

New Delhi: More than 13,600 students from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes have dropped out of their courses at central universities, the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management in the past five years, data tabled in Lok Sabha showed.

Students from the marginalised communities have spoken about facing caste-based discrimination on campuses amid rising suicides among them across higher educational institutions.

The data on Monday was provided by Subhas Sarkar, the minister of state for education, in response to a question by Bahujan Samaj Party MP Ritesh Pandey.

These withdrawals by students from their courses was mainly related to them having secured a seat in another department or institutions of their choice or because of personal reasons, Sarkar said in his response.

“In the higher education sector students have multiple options and they choose to migrate across institutions and from one course/programme to another in the same institution,” Sarkar said.

In central universities, 4,596 students from the Other Backward Classes, 2,424 Scheduled Caste students and 2,622 students from the Scheduled Tribes had dropped out in the past five years.

At the Indian Institutes of Technology, 2,066 students from the Other Backward Classes, 1,068 Scheduled Caste students and 408 students from the Scheduled Tribes had dropped out from their courses.

At the IIMs, 163 students from the Other Backward Classes, 188 Scheduled Caste students and 91 students from the Scheduled Tribes had dropped out during the period.