The office of the SC/ST-OBC Cell of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has been inaugurated today, February 2 – after nearly 11 months since its constitution. 

The inauguration ceremony took place at 10 am today, in the Seminar Hall on the campus. Ramdas Athawale, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment was present at the ceremony as its chief guest. Members of the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), an independent student collective for SC/ST/OBC welfare from IIT Delhi, were also present at the ceremony. 

The SC/ST-OBC Cell of IIT Delhi was constituted on March 16  last year following three suicides at IITs, with two of the victims belonging to the SC community. These deaths reignited conversations around caste discrimination and institutional casteism towards SC, ST and OBC students at reputed education institutions such as the IITs. 

This cell, which is led by Prof Pravin Ingole of IIT Delhi’s Department of Chemistry, is tasked to implement and monitor reservation policies related to the admission of students at all levels, and the recruitment for both teaching and non-teaching posts. The cell has the power to follow up and check whether the objectives of reservation policies are being met, as stated in a report by The Hindu. 

Further, the cell is also responsible for receiving orders for the education, training, and employment of SC/ST/OBC students and employees issued by the Central Government or the University Grants Commission (UGC), to improve or modify existing policies, as well as reporting all the above information back to the Ministry of Education.