257 ST students converted to other religions but availed reservation for admission to ITIs in Maharashtra: Report

According to the report, 37 of the 257 students are Muslim, four are Buddhist, three Christian and one Sikh. The report states that 190 belong to other faith (as ticked in their admission forms) and religious faith of 22 was not known (they did not mention any detail with regards to religion).

Stating that this is a serious concern, the committee in its report said, “The committee will pay visit to all these 257 cases, the ITI where they are admitted, the village where they reside, including the integrated tribal development projects from the area. The committee will then study whether facilities targeted for tribals should be extended to these students, if they have converted to other religions to provide an appropriate plan of action.”

The interim report submitted by the three-member committee headed by a retired vice-chancellor held a total of three meetings since its formation in December. The committee scrutinised admissions done to ITIs in Maharashtra in the year 2023, including all category admissions. The committee found out that among 13,858 students who took admission on seats reserved for ST candidates, 257 have registered under religions other than Hindu.

As per existing government rules, 7.5 per cent of seats are reserved for STs. The existing law states that individuals belonging to ST may profess any religion and the Castes or Tribes included in the list of Scheduled Tribes under Article 342 of the Constitution, are entitled for getting the benefits of reservation.

The committee has also said that similar survey may also be carried in other educational institutions if complaints are made.

“The committee has also recommended that if there are complaints, such inspection should be conducted in other sectors too such as medical and other colleges, teacher appointments government departments etc. to identify if there are individuals who have taken benefits of reservations for tribal, despite converting to other religion,” Lodha said.

In December 2023, BJP MLCs Niranjan Davkhare, Praveen Darekar and Prasad Lad had raised the issue of STs who had converted but reservation benefits. The three in a calling attention notice had claimed that in the state ITIs there were a large number of STs who had converted to Islam or Christianity but still managed to secure admissions through reservations earmarked for STs.

Subsequently Lodha had stated that he would look into the issue and later a Government Resolution (GR) was issued announcing setting up of a three-member committee to look into the issue which was headed by former vice chancellor of Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University Dr Murlidhar Chandekar.

There are a total of 966 ITIs in Maharashtra in which over one lakh students study.

There have been increasing demands from right wing groups that members of tribal communities who have converted to other faiths should be stripped of their reservation rights and delisted from the original tribe.