The great betrayal: Numbers don’t lie... caste still decides who teaches

Bengaluru: Despite decades of policy rhetoric and court mandates, the Indian government's commitment to implementing reservations in higher education remains little more than a hollow promise. A recent reply in Parliament has exposed the staggering extent to which affirmative action has been undermined, not just by administrative apathy, but by what appears to be a deliberate systemic resistance to inclusion.

The numbers are damning. In Central universities, nearly 80% of professor posts reserved for OBCs and a shocking 83% meant for STs lie vacant. Even for associate professor positions, the vacancies stand at 69% for OBCs and 65% for STs, while SCs fare only slightly better, with 51% of positions unfilled.

At the level of assistant professors, where one might expect slightly better implementation, the situation remains grim: 23% of OBC, 15% of ST and 14% of SC posts remain unfilled.

In contrast, the general category shows far lower vacancy rates, with just 16% of associate professor and 39% of professor posts vacant. These figures, revealed by the Union Minister of State for Education in response to a parliamentary question by MP Manoj Kumar Jha, should have triggered a political earthquake.

Instead, the silence is telling. It points not just to official indifference, but to an entrenched resistance to the very idea of representation, a bureaucracy and academic elite that continue to treat reservations as a technicality rather than a tool for social justice.

Even more revealing is the refusal by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to disclose the number of backlog vacancies for SC, ST, and OBC candidates in the central government, despite a specific RTI request and an order from the appellate authority.

Such stonewalling not only defies the spirit of transparency but raises an even darker possibility: that the figures are so politically unpalatable, they are being actively buried. Is this simply bad governance, or is it wilful neglect? Either way, the consequences are clear.

The failure to fill these posts perpetuates a cycle of exclusion, denying qualified candidates from marginalised communities their rightful place in the country’s premier institutions.

Worse, it undermines the very idea of merit by creating a system where opportunity is still mediated by caste privilege. The government's oft-repeated claim that ‘no suitable candidates’ were found is difficult to accept at face value.

As Jha rightly asked in Parliament, why is this phrase invoked disproportionately for reserved posts? The lack of data on this point only furthers suspicion. When the caste census is being hotly debated and the political discourse is flooded with talk of empowerment, these numbers strike at the heart of the matter.

If the government cannot honour its own reservation mandates in institutions it directly funds and oversees, what legitimacy can it claim in larger social justice debates? Years of backlog cannot be cleared overnight.

But the least the government can do is show that it’s trying. As things stand, it isn’t. And the silence from those in power is not just disappointing; it’s damning.