Does Affirmative Action in Indian Central Universities Impact Research Productivity?

Abstract

Affirmative action (AA) has long been viewed negatively in contemporary society. The political philosophies of AA are still widely misunderstood and fiercely debated around the world today. The argument against AA is that faculty hired through AA are less efficient than those hired through open/general category. This research attempts to empirically assess if professors from the Other Backward Class (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories in India’s three Central Universities are equally productive and effective as their General category counterparts. The effectiveness of the four teaching categories (General/OBC/SC/ST) was evaluated using the CCR model of Data Envelopment Analysis, while the productivity of teachers was estimated using bibliometric analysis. The data analysis demonstrates that AA positively impacts the research productivity of marginalized groups, except ST, which has very low representation in Pure and Applied Sciences, with OBC and SC performing on par with their General counterpart when placed in higher productivity subjects.