New Delhi: The parliamentary committee on welfare of schedule caste and schedule tribe has strongly pulled up AIIMS for its bias against the hiring of qualified professors and doctors from SC and ST community in AIIMS. The committee headed by Kirit P Solanki has been constituted to look at the roles of autonomous bodies and educational institutions, including central universities and engineering colleges, in the socio-economic development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with a focus on AIIMS.
“It has been often seen that these students had invariably done very well in theory examinations but are declared to have failed in the practical examinations. This clearly underlines the biases towards SC/ST students. This must be dealt with firm decision and that a suitable examination monitoring system may be developed to put an end on this biased practice,” the committee said, asking the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Mohfw) to take stern action to check such unfair practices. As a remedy the committee has recommended that students appear in exam use a fictitious code rather than name so that their community identity is hidden. The committee recommended that a selection committee comprising of SC/ST experts be formed which may overlook the filling of vacancies in AIIMS. The committee further said “ No faculty reserved for SC/ST shall be kept vacant for more than 6 months”. The committee directed the union health ministry to submit an action plan within three months which will be placed in both houses of parliament.
