Politics of Disability Reservation

Amidst the hue and cry over the University Grants Commission (UGC) notification dated 5 May 2016, which talks about slashing the number of seats for MPhil and PhD courses in order to maintain the fine balance of the teacher–student ratio, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has come up with two lists of “tentative vacancies for MPhil/PhD programmes.”

In the lists, in both MPhil and PhD courses, one can see how many unreserved, Other Backward Class, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates are currently enrolled within a centre and with a faculty. There is another column for physically handicapped (PH) category, that is, for the differently-abled candidates. Looking at the list, one would be shocked as most of the centres in JNU have no differently-abled candidates, neither in the MPhil nor PhD courses.