Over the past decade, the number of women students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has seen a sharp drop - from a majority to less than half of the total student strength. The share of SC/ST (Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe) students has also seen a dip, according to the State of the University Report (Updated October 2025) released by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) on Wednesday. Highlighting gender disparity, the report noted: “JNU’s past achievements in improving the social composition of the University’s student body, and increasing the proportion of women, have been reversed in the last few years and continue in that direction.” The number of women students has fallen from a majority of 51.1% in 2016–17 to less than half the student body at 43.1% in 2024–25, the report stated. Meanwhile, women faculty representation has also taken a hit. As of March 31, 2025, JNU had 208 women faculty members, constituting 29.7% of the total faculty strength of 700 - lower than the 30% recorded on March 31, 2022, and even lower than the 30.9% on March 31, 2016. Citing a potential reason behind the fall in women student representation, the report noted that the decline coincides with the JNU's shift away from conducting its own entrance examination, and the elimination of the "deprivation points system" in admissions to research programmes - both of which JNUTA argued had once served as instruments of inclusion. Under the deprivation points model, extra marks are added to the total entrance test score of a disadvantaged student. The report added that "the environment. has become progressively unfriendly to women with the abolition in 2017 of JNU’s proven institutional mechanism for dealing with sexual harassment, namely the GSCASH (Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment)", which was replaced by the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). The report alleged that ICC “works as an extension of the top administration rather than an ‘autonomous’ body”, adding that “while the campus has become more and more unsafe with both security lapses and a general atmosphere of impunity for sexual harassers, reporting of cases to the ICC has decreased”. The decline in numbers is not limited to gender. Between 2021–22 and 2024–25, “the number of SC students declined from 1,500 to 1,143, while that of ST students declined from 741 to 545”, the report stated. As a result, “the SC share in the total student strength” fell from 15% to 14.3%, and “for STs, the decline is from 7.4% to 6.8% - in both cases, these are levels below the prescribed reservation percentages”. The report ties the trend to structural changes in admissions and governance, including the continued reliance on the National Testing Agency (NTA) for entrance examinations and the “erosion of university autonomy.” It laments that JNU’s decision-making bodies “no longer deliberate meaningfully” on matters affecting social equity. Alongside social regression, JNUTA’s report identifies what it calls a “precipitous decline” in academic investment. “The shifting of the University’s thrust from academic and equity considerations after 2016 has also reflected itself in the precipitous decline that has taken place in academic expenditures,” it states. According to the report, total academic expenses (excluding examination costs) fell from Rs 30.28 crore in 2015–16 to Rs 19.29 crore in 2024–25—a cut of 36.3%. Spending on seminars and workshops declined by 97.2%, laboratory expenses by 76.3%, and fieldwork or conference participation by 79.6%. Meanwhile, the financial burden on the students has increased, the report points out. “Even though JNU is no longer conducting entrance examinations, it has compensated much of its loss of academic receipts by increasing the burden on students and applicants by charging them additional fees,” the report says. Academic receipts from fees increased from Rs 240.8 lakh in 2015–16 to Rs 856.53 lakh in 2024–25. Further, the report highlights that the deterioration of research culture in the university is equally pronounced. “From a situation where [research students] constituted the majority, research students are now outnumbered by students in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes,” the report observes. “Their absolute number, in fact, has declined from 5,432 in 2016–17 to under 3,286 in 2024–25,” the report adds.
