‘Stereo-type response’: Parliamentary panel report on reservation policy implementation in AIIMS Delhi

In 2018, according to the Ministry of Health and Family welfare data submitted to the panel, 16 senior faculty posts went vacant in AIIMS, Delhi, as the selection committee found “candidates not suitable” in the SC, ST and OBC category. In 2022, 12 such faculty posts went vacant in the reserved category.

The committee , headed by Lok Sabha MP Kirit Premjibhai Solanki, rejected the government’s inability to appoint faculty as a “stereo-type response” that no sufficient number of suitable candidates could be found. Calling the government’s actions “biased assessment” of SC and ST candidates, the panel said the candidates from such background are “deliberately declared” unsuitable to “deprive SC/ST candidates of their legitimate rights to be part of faculty member.” The panel reiterated that faculty seats reserved for SC/ST cannot be kept vacant for more than six months “under any circumstances.”

The panel further expressed its concern that the selection committee has “negligible or no presence” of SC and ST members in the board and selection committee of the institute. The observation came in response to the health ministry’s data which showed that 115 SC and 44 ST faculty members are part of the governing body and selection committees of AIIMS, Delhi, at present.

The inadequate representation, the panel said, deprives people from SC and ST category to be part of the decision making process and policy matters especially with regard to recruitment processes. “The Committee are of the considered view that members from SC/ST community should be mandatorily included in the Selection Committee in order to provide representation and to participate in policies being framed to enhance the prospects of SC/ST employees in AIIMS,” the report said.

To allow better representation of historically marginalised communities, the panel recommended an amendment in the AIIMS Act which should include members belonging to SC and ST community in the selection board.

The panel also observed that reservation in super speciality courses was also not being extended to the marginalised community. “The Committee observed that the reservation is not extended/applied in super speciality courses. As a result thereof, members belonging to SC/ST community are not able to enter the super-specialty courses, resulting in unprecedented and unwarranted deprivation of SCs and STs candidate and monopoly of the unreserved faculty members in the super-specialty fields,” its report stated.