IIT Guwahati records highest dropouts; 88% are from SC, ST and OBC communities

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Almost 88% of undergraduate dropouts at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati are from the reserved categories. This is the worst record among the top seven IITs in the country.

Students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) are in the reserved categories.

Sources in the Education Department said that the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry recently informed the Rajya Sabha that an analysis of the seven IITs that stand in the top 10 of the National Institute Ranking framework shows that the 'disproportionality' of dropouts is starker at some institutions.

In the last five years, 88% out of 25 dropouts in IIT Guwahati belong to the reserved categories. Three-fourths of all dropouts are from the SC/ST communities even as they make up less than a quarter of the students at the institute. It is worth mentioning here that IIT Guwahati is the outcome of the historic Assam Accord.

Out of 10 students who dropped out of IIT Delhi in 2018, all were from the reserved categories. A similar trend is seen every year except in 2019.

IIT Madras has had 10 dropouts over the last five years. While six dropouts have been SC/ST students, another was from the Other Backward Class (OBC) community. Altogether 70% of the institution's dropouts were from the reserved categories.

Altogether 79 students have left IIT Kharagpur in the last five years. More than 60% are from the reserved categories. IIT Bombay had the best record, with reserved category dropouts in proportion with their share of the total student intake, although SC/ST students fared worse.

Even though several social organizations and activists are arguing that students from the reserved categories such as Dalit and Adivasi face pressure and discrimination at the IITs, the Centre has, however, informed the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Monsoon session of the Parliament that the dropouts were "mainly on account of securing a seat in other departments or institutions of students choice or on any other personal ground".

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