Academic Orphans: Caste And Recruitment In Delhi University
On April 26, 2023, Samarveer Singh died by suicide. His death made it to newspaper headlines as he was a teacher of philosophy albeit ad hoc at the prestigious Hindu College affiliated with Delhi University (DU), recognised as an Institution of Eminence. Gradually, the news filtered out—how he was rendered jobless after interviews were held for permanent positions, his six-year-long teaching experience notwithstanding. A few protests happened and then it was business as usual—the college celebrated its annual fest a few days after his unfortunate death.
Various reports cite that more than fifty per cent of the teachers in DU belong to the ad hoc or even worse—the ‘guest faculty’ category. They work under conditions of extreme precarity, subject to multiple forms of humiliation and exploitation. Ironically, the teachers’ movement is strong in DU and such issues are highlighted, but on the flip side, ad hoc and guest faculties are used as mere foot soldiers by various political ideologies. It is a form of ‘academic slavery’ wherein the institutions exploit the intellectual and physical labour of the candidate while dangling the carrot of permanent appointment.