Despite several special drive and cutoff lists this year, over 5.6% of seats of the EWS (Economically weaker section) category at Delhi University are still vacant. The vacancy in the EWS category is the highest among all reserved categories followed by 3.5% vacant seats for the scheduled tribe (ST) category.
Under the other backward class category, over 1.5% of seats are vacant while at schedule tribe (ST category) the count stands at 0.6%. As per the Delhi University officials, the number of vacant seats under the EWS category is higher than in 2019, when the reservation was implemented. Last year, a 15% quota was enrolled for the EWS category instead of 10%. Delhi University’s 57 colleges now have over 5,616 seats altogether under the EWS category.
A teacher at the College of Vocational Studies, Kumar Ashutosh said that this is possible due to the fact that many students were not able to obtain the income certificate due to coronavirus lockdown. Kumar had earlier written to Delhi University to release a special drive to fill up the vacant seats.
He pointed out that this year not many students have taken admission from the ST category. Earlier ST category students from the Northeast region used to enroll in University in a significant number, but not this year.
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Lack of Facility to Attend Online Classes
Anju Srivastava, Hindu College Principal said that EWS category students might have felt that online classes without adequate facilities would be difficult to manage. He added that many students from outside Delhi might have put off the admission by the prospect of getting accommodation in Delhi.
Many DU teachers, however, said that one major reason could be high cutoffs for the reserved category. Srivastava asserted that the EWS category cutoffs were somewhat close to that of the general category and did not come down much.
The principal of Sri Venkateshwara College, Venkat Kumar refusing the statements said that the concept of EWS quota is new and is unknown to many. The majority of seats in courses like life science are vacant, he added. Kumar added that there are over 140 seats in life science courses and filling the 10% of it with EWS category students may not be always possible.
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But in some of the DU colleges, seats are vacant even in popular courses like B.Com (Hons.), History and English.
University officials said that they are assessing the data. In a press conference with PC Joshi, the officiating vice-chancellor; Rajeev Gupta, dean of student welfare said the EWS quota is dynamic and students might fall under it in one year but not in the subsequent year. He added that the numbers may vary a little as the University is looking at multiple admission grievances.