63% dropouts at top IITs from reserved categories: Education Minister

Nearly 63 per cent of undergraduates who dropped out of the top seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the past five years are from reserved categories, said Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha. 

According to the data provided by the Education Ministry, roughly 40 per cent belong to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories. The share of SCs/STs touched 72 per cent in some institutions.  

This indicates that those who have dropped out of these premiere institutions are from the underprivileged groups, provided that half of the undergraduate admissions in IITs are from reserved categories, whereas around 23 per cent are from SC/ST communities. Dalit and Adivasi activists have been arguing that college students from these communities face discrimination at IITs. 

However, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the Rajya Sabha that the dropouts had been “mainly on account of securing seats in other departments or institutions selected by students or on any other personal ground”. 

He was responding to a question from Kerala MP V Sivadasan relating to undergraduate dropouts in all centrally funded technical institutions, the diversity seen in social categories and steps taken to address it. The minister listed “fee cuts, institute scholarships, priority access to national level scholarships to help students with poor financial background to pursue their education” among the measures taken to stop dropouts. 

An analysis of the seven IITs that rank in the top 10 of the National Institute Ranking framework shows that the disproportionality of dropouts is more pronounced in some institutions.

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