Caste discrimination? India’s IIT Bombay admits collecting category details for job placements

The prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) has admitted in a letter that it used to include caste information of students on job placement forms. It comes after a notice from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC).

IIT Bombay has made the admission in response to a complaint by Dheeraj Singh, an IIT Kanpur alumnus, seeking clarification on allegations of requiring students to disclose their category details and general rank in the Common Rank List (CRL).

In the letter, the prestigious institution in Maharashtra admitted that its placement office used to collect caste details to offer to Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) upon request. The practice has been discontinued from last year.

Singh asked for the reason behind employers prioritising JEE category ranks from 4 years ago in comparison to the students’ academic performance during their degrees, suggesting this reflected a lack of trust in the institution’s educational standards.

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