Students from reserved categories are up in arms against what they see as IIT-Kanpur’s discriminatory recruiting practices. The Institute has reportedly allowed recruiting firms to make it compulsory to mention entrance test ranks in their application forms. Therefore, the reserved category students are disappointed that they are being filtered during placement, basis their entrance-test ranks.
The students from the ‘reserved’ category have raised their voices against the fact that the forms require them to mention the ‘general’ ranks secured in the JEE-Mains and JEE-Advanced exams.
A student approached the director of IIT-Kanpur with a complaint. He also wrote to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and various ministries, drawing attention to the form that a company called Merilytics required candidates to fill.
Many students from the reserved category were hesitant to apply because of the requirement to fill that field, as it highlighted the fact that they did not belong to the ‘general’ rank.
There exists a mentorship programme within IIT-Kanpur that is dedicated to mentoring students from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC). It is this support group called Global IIT SC/ST Alumni Support Group that drew attention to this ‘discrimination’ at the IIT Kanpur campus. The Group has reported that students at other IITs have also faced such an issue while filling forms for various companies, including Jaguar Land-Rover and Navi.
