Reserved-quota students now dominate India’s higher education: Study

A new IIM Udaipur study reveals that SC, ST, and OBC students now constitute over 60 per cent of higher education enrolment in India, surpassing General Category students and challenging claims of upper-caste dominance across government and private institutions

New Delhi: A new analysis of India’s higher education landscape reveals a dramatic shift in caste-wise enrolment patterns over the past decade, with Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) now forming the overwhelming majority of students across the country’s universities and colleges.

The findings, based on 13 years of All-India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) data, challenge widely circulated claims about “upper-caste dominance” in the sector.

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According to the study, conducted by the Centre for Development Policy and Management (CDPM) at IIM Udaipur, researchers analysed census-level AISHE reports from 2010–11 to 2022–23, covering 60,380 institutions and 43.8 million students.

The research team — Prof. Venkatramanan Krishnamurthy, Thiyagarajan Jayaraman, and Prof Dina Banerjee —describes the dataset as one of the most comprehensive examinations of caste representation in Indian higher education to date.

“This report shatters several widespread misconceptions about the social composition of students in Indian higher education,” said Prof Krishnamurthy. “Contrary to the prevailing narrative, students from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) overwhelmingly dominate enrolment and significantly outnumber General Category students.”

According to the report, the combined share of SC/ST/OBC enrolment rose sharply from 43.1 per cent in 2010–11 to 60.8 per cent in 2022–23. In 2023 alone, SC/ST/OBC enrolment exceeded that of General Category students by 9.5 million. Meanwhile, the General Category share fell from 57 per cent in 2011 to about 39 per cent in 2023, even after including Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students.

American sociologist Dr Salvatore Babones, welcoming the AISHE-based findings, said, “This paper lays out the data on access to higher education by caste category. It should be read by everyone involved in India’s caste reservation debates.”

Former Chief Justice B R Gavai, quoted in the report, reiterated the need to extend the creamy-layer principle to SC and ST categories: “If benefits go repeatedly to the same families, a class within a class emerges. Reservation must reach those who truly need it.”

Co-author Thiyagarajan echoed this concern, noting: “AISHE data reveals that availability of opportunities for SC, ST, OBC students in Higher Education is not an issue anymore — it is above average. Now the focus should be to ensure that the creamy layer among them does not take away the opportunities of those in the lower rung.”

CasteFiles’ analysis of the same dataset, cited in the report, found that SC/ST/OBC students constitute 62.2 per cent of enrolment in government institutions and 60 per cent in private institutions, indicating that the demographic shift is widespread across States and disciplines.

The report further states that General Category students show a year-on-year decline in absolute enrolment and increasingly face competition from SC/ST/OBC students entering general (non-quota) seats on merit.

Calling for evidence-based policy evaluation, Prof Banerjee stated, “This analysis reinforces the importance of an evidence-based approach to equity and the urgent need to revisit policy frameworks in light of these new realities.”

Dr Babones added, “Social policy must be driven by data to be efficient and effective.” The study, published by IIM Udaipur’s CDPM, is available for researchers, journalists, and policymakers seeking to understand long-term structural changes in India’s higher education ecosystem.