The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) has not been able to recruit any faculty members from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category between January 2021 and June 2023, despite the institute conducting a special drive to recruit persons from the reserved categories.
In reply to an RTI application filed by an activist, IIMB had revealed that in that period, 585 members from general category, 125 from Scheduled Caste (SC) category and 39 candidates from ST category had applied for jobs.
Out of these IIMB made offers to 23 general category candidates (out of which 17 joined), two offers to SC candidates (both joined) and no offers to ST candidates.
Further, from 223 OBC candidates who had applied, eight joined IIMB as faculty members and out of 22 applicants from the Person with Disability (PwD) category and 23 from Economically Weaker Section (EWS), none were given any offers by IIMB.
Currently, there are 10 faculty members from the OBC category, five from the SC category and one from the ST category teaching at IIMB. The institute noted that for faculty hired before 2020, the data is based on voluntary disclosure available with IIMB. The IIMB website says, “The Institute follows the Reservation Policy of the Government of India for candidates belonging to OBC, SC/ST, EWS, and PwD.”
Responding to a query, IIMB said that their recruitment process is “structured with adequate and robust checks and balances to ensure inclusion”.
Special programme
In an official statement, IIMB further said, “IIM Bangalore’s commitment to increase the social diversity of management academia in India has been demonstrated through the launch of the NSR Pre-doc programme, in 2018, which clearly shows our intent for the larger management ecosystem. IIM Bangalore is the only IIM to launch such an initiative and commit significant resources to it.”
The institution explained that it is a one-year fully paid fellowship programme designed to help pre-doctoral fellows successfully apply to doctoral programmes in management and allied disciplines. “We are in the sixth edition of the programme, and we have 40 alumni many of whom are pursuing PhD programmes in India and abroad. We believe this will go a long way in enhancing social diversity of management academia.”
