The gap is most prominent in appointments made from the Scheduled Tribe community, while the maximum number of vacancies were filled under the general category.
Representative image. Photo: whatcouldgowrong/Flickr, CC BY 2.0
The government has admitted that there is a huge backlog in filling posts allocated for reserved categories in higher education, as mandated by a 2006 Act of parliament.
The backlog is particularly striking if you look at the post of professor. Appointment of candidates from the general category outweigh those from the reserved categories, with postings from Other Backward Caste (OBC), Dalit and Tribal communities showing a far bigger gap.
For instance, only 84 professors from the OBC community have been appointed against the sanctioned strength of 423. That means a vacancy rate of 80%.
Meanwhile, only 111 professors belonging to the Dalit community have been appointed in the last five years, when at least 308 should have been. That is a vacancy rate of 64%.
Similarly, 144 professors from the Tribal community should’ve been appointed, but only 24 made it. That is a vacancy rate of 83%.
The total number of sanctioned posts for professor, associate professor and assistant professor in central universities, across all categories, as of June 30, 2025, was 18,951. Of these, 14,062 were filled, leaving 25% posts vacant. In the general category, only 15% of the seats remain empty while reserved categories stand out for their vacancy rate.
For OBCs, a total of 3,688 posts were due. Of these, 2,197 had been filled, leaving a vacancy of 40%.
Similarly, only 1,599 appointments were made from the Dalit community out of the 2,310 posts due. This translated to about 30% vacancies.
The gap is most prominent in appointments made from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community. Of the 1,155 sanctioned posts, only 727 appointments were made. This means 37% of the seats were left vacant.
The highest number of seats were filled under the general category, according to data revealed in the Rajya Sabha by the Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar, in reply to a question raised by Professor Manoj Kumar Jha, of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, calling for data on posts and vacancies in the past five years.
Reference Link:- https://thewire.in/caste/80-obc-64-dalit-and-83-tribal-professor-level-posts-vacant-govt-data