DUTA PRESS RELEASE: JUNE 13, 2019

                                                                                                                                           
The DUTA welcomes the Union Cabinet’s decision to introduce the Central Educational Institutions (Reservations in Teachers’ Cadre) Bill, 2019 in the forthcoming session of Parliament. The much-awaited Bill is expected to restore the Constitutionally mandated reservations in teachers’ appointments across all central universities and institutes by counting the institution as a unit for reservations. It is the logical culmination of an Ordinance that had been issued by the President of India on 7th March 2019, following a sustained democratic movement involving teachers’ associations across universities,  researchers, Dalits, Bahujans, Adivasi groups, and activists from the cross-sections of civil society. The DUTA had played a pivotal role in this nation-wide movement to ensure that social justice is preserved and guarded in academic jobs. It congratulates all participants and thanks the MPs and other public representatives who supported the movement through their prompt interventions at the level of the Parliament and Government.

The Bill also includes 10% reservation for EWS category. The DUTA urges the MHRD to immediately sanction additional permanent teaching posts – including the remaining second tranche posts from the OBC Expansion Scheme, sanction additional posts to implement UGC Regulations which mandated 14/16 hours of teaching for Assistant Professor/Associate Professor, respectively, and more posts to implement the Choice Based Credit System – to ensure that all the reservation percentages are equitably met, and a healthy student-teacher ratio is maintained across central institutions.

On closer scrutiny, it becomes apparent that the funds allocated under different heads for the implementation of the EWSs Reservation is grossly inadequate. Further, the DUTA demands MHRD and UGC to reconsider the damaging and unacceptable decision to sanction the additional funds required for EWS-expansion as HEFA loans instead of grants (as per the UGC letter dated 10 June 2019). Such a move will jeopardise  the EWS Expansion by subjecting institutions to a debt burden that will defeat the very purpose of making higher educational institutions accessible to the economically weaker sections.