IIT Delhi's Initiative for Caste Equity formalised to address caste discrimination; APPSC lauds move

About a month ago, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi made its caste-related cells active and made them available for students. Appreciating this initiative, an autonomous student circle, Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) of IIT Delhi, termed it as an "instrumental moment in the history of IITs".

According to the official message from the Dean of Diversity & Inclusion Cell of the institute dated March 23, to which EdexLive has access, Initiative for Caste Equity (ICE), Office of Accessible Education (OAE), Indradhanu, and Initiative for Gender Equity and Sensitisation (IGES) have been made active and available to provide advice and support on matters related to diversity and inclusion. 

Following this, in its Instagram post on April 25, APPSC wrote, "Details of the formalised team meant to address caste discrimination on the IIT Delhi campus is up on the IIT Delhi website. This has been an instrumental moment in the history of IITs as more students are encouraged to acknowledge the ‘presence’ of caste in the classroom, and acknowledge the historical and present ways in which historical caste oppression continues as lewd comments, demeaning remarks and suspicious gazes, and hyper-vigilant friendships that lack trust."

To recall, IITs have made headlines many times as they have witnessed deaths of marginalised students due to alleged caste discrimination on campus. Therefore, APPSC opines that this "initiative is meant to curb the growing deaths of marginalised students on the IIT campus".

Ambedkar Jayanthi 

IIT Delhi celebrated Jai Bhim Saptah-2024 from April 12 to 16 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar. As a part of this, various programmes were conducted by the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) Cell, which was the organising committee. 

Book stalls related to social justice, lectures, a dignity march, a blood donation camp, a film screening, a drawing competition and an award ceremony were few of the activities listed in the schedule for the five-day event along with a visit to the Parliament. 

Connecting dots between the formulation of the ICE and the celebrations of Ambedkar Jayanti, an APPSC member, on the condition of anonymity said, "This is the first time we had an off on Ambedkar Jayanti. Also, a conference on Critical Philosophy of Caste and Race was organised for the first time in March due to the existence of the ICE cell."  

What is ICE?

Established in 2023, the Initiative for Caste Equity (ICE) aims to work to educate the campus community about the value of equality and diversity. Additionally, it aims to address the needs, aspirations, and challenges of Scheduled Castes-Scheduled Tribes (SC-ST) students, staff, and faculty to build a "cohesive, discrimination-free and inclusive campus community", as mentioned by the institute on its website.

An official speaking to EdexLive clarified that the cell has been active in progressively solving all the matters reported so far.