Reading the NEP 08: Every Student
English

A friend teaches in a rural college.
Half her first-years are the first
in their families to study beyond school.
What does the NEP promise them?
Chapter 14 of the policy begins
with students like hers.
Its first sentence says
a good college education can lift people,
and whole communities,
out of the cycles of disadvantage.
Then it gives governments eight steps
to take,
and colleges and universities thirteen.
The policy calls them
socio-economically disadvantaged groups.
On page 24 it sorts them on five grounds:
gender identity,
social and cultural identity,
place, disability and economic condition.
It notes that enrolment falls
from one class to the next,
faster for many of these groups,
and faster still for the girls among them.
Our admission form asks about all five.
So what does the policy say keeps
these students away?
Chapter 14 lists
the barriers that are greater
in higher education than in school.
Its reasons include not knowing
what college offers,
the earnings a student gives up,
fees, the admission process,
distance and language,
and weak support.
For every student,
chapter 12 promises professional academic
and career counselling,
and counsellors to look
after their well-being.
Every institution is to have a system
for handling stress,
and ways to fund student clubs,
from poetry to sports.
Colleges and universities
are to set up support centres
for disadvantaged students,
and will be given adequate funds
to run them.
The chapter also promises
medical facilities for all students,
and more hostel places
for rural students as needed.
There are to be scholarships
and a larger National Scholarship Portal,
and private colleges are to be encouraged
to offer more freeships.
It also says faculty will be trained
to approach students
as mentors and guides.
Am I the counsellor now?
The text keeps the two apart.
Faculty are to be trained to mentor,
and counselling is to come
from counsellors.
Governments are to earmark funds,
set clear enrolment targets
for these groups,
and give more scholarships
in public and private colleges.
They are also to open good institutions
in aspirational districts
and in special education zones
with many such students.
Colleges and universities are to reduce
what study costs a student,
and make admissions
and the curriculum more inclusive.
They are to run bridge courses,
make every building accessible
to wheelchairs,
and strictly enforce the rules
against discrimination and harassment.
A friend who teaches law asks me
where it mentions reservation.
Nowhere.
The word reservation does not occur
in the 66 pages,
and neither does quota.
Under social and cultural identity,
the text names the Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes,
Other Backward Classes and minorities.
In January 2024 the UGC's guidelines asked
every institution to set up
a cell for these students
and to run bridge courses every year.
The cell is to settle
their complaints within 15 days,
and students may earn while they learn,
for up to 20 hours a week.
My friend's college has no counsellor
and no such cell.
Has any of this reached
a campus like hers?
In January 2026 the Supreme Court quoted
a survey by its task force
on student mental health.
Fewer than 4
in 100 institutions had replied.
Of those that did,
73 per cent had no full-time
mental-health professional.
On discrimination,
the UGC notified new equity regulations
in January 2026,
and the Supreme Court put them
on hold the same month.
In August the Union government told
the court that the regulations
were under reconsideration.
As of October 2026,
the regulations of 2012 still apply.
The latest official survey,
for 2023–24, puts
the enrolment ratio at 30 per cent.
It is about 31 for women,
28 for the Scheduled Castes
and 23 for the Scheduled Tribes.
The policy asks governments
to set targets for these groups,
and gives no figure itself.
Our staff room is split over this chapter.
What do people who study it say?
Pankaj Mittal, secretary general
of the Association of Indian Universities,
commented on the survey in July 2026.
More women are enrolling,
she said, and more students
from the Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes
and Other Backward Classes.
She credited two decades of policy,
reinforced
by the NEP's flexible entry and exit
and its proposed special education zones.
Nivedita Menon, a political theorist
at Jawaharlal Nehru University,
wrote in September 2020
that the policy makes no reference
to reservation.
The Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes
and Other Backward Classes appear only
as socio-cultural identities, she wrote.
By her estimate, the wider group
they are placed in covers up
to 80 per cent of the population.
So what can one teacher do
in the first week of term?
Find out
who on your campus handles counselling,
complaints of discrimination
and scholarships,
and tell your classes in the first week.
If a student is in distress, point them
to your institution's support services.
Then open each course with a short bridge.
A geography teacher might spend
a week on maps and scale.
A literature teacher might show
how to summarise a chapter,
and a nursing teacher might revise ratios.
And ask to see
your college's development plan.
Chapter 14 asks for it
to contain specific plans for bringing
in more of these students,
so read what yours says.
She'll run a bridge week in July.
And she'll ask the principal
for a counsellor again,
with page 39 open on the desk.
Page 39 says all students.
The full text
and our sources are linked below.
Next time, the faculty chapter,
and what it promises those who teach.