On Saturday, July 29, a new set of posters with new ‘anti-discriminatory guidelines’ came up at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay campus.
The guidelines for ‘high inclusivity within the campus’ include prohibiting asking any fellow student about their birth or admission category as it could lead to conscious or subconscious bias. The institute has even labelled it inappropriate to ask students about their Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced ranks, the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) scores, or any other detail which may reveal their caste.
“IIT Bombay implements, and is proud to implement, the reservation-policy of the Constitution in letter and in spirit. The institute strives to provide equal opportunities to all the admitted students. The institute also strives to ensure that students do not face any discrimination: whether from faculty members, staff members or fellow students,” the poster read.
Moreover, the guidelines stressed that forwarding messages, even as jokes, related to religion, caste or sexual orientation, including hateful, abusive, sexist or casteist messages, would be considered harassment and strict action would be taken against the perpetrator.
A spokesperson from IIT Bombay, told EdexLive, “These guidelines are not new and have always been there. Earlier, we have been informing the same to students verbally during orientation sessions. We have now put up these posters on the campus as a reminder for the students. If any complaints are received in these regards, our disciplinary committee will take action against it.”
The guidelines also encouraged students to bond over commonalities like sports, music, films and so on.
Recent allegations
The posters seem to have come up after allegations of caste discrimination against the premiere institute that surfaced following the death of Darshan Solanki, a first-year BTech (Chemical) student at IIT Bombay.
Solanki, a native of Ahmedabad, allegedly jumped to death from the seventh floor of a hostel building at IITB on February 12.
According to the chargesheet filed by the police, he had told his mother that caste-based discrimination existed on the institute's campus. Moreover, it also mentioned that Solanki had alleged that the behaviour of his fellow students against him changed when they learnt about his caste.
However, this is not the first or only such incident at the institute. As informed by a student at IIT Bombay, who wished to stay anonymous, the institute had allegedly conducted an internal caste discrimination survey among the SC/ST students last year in February 2022. After the survey, a number of instances including caste discrimination, harassment and bullying surfaced.
‘Segregation’ in hostel mess
The premiere technical institute has also grabbed headlines recently for allegations of “food-based casteism” on campus.
Students at IIT Bombay have alleged that a few students are designating certain areas of the mess as "vegetarians only" and disallowing other students from sitting there. In certain areas, posters saying “Vegetarians only are allowed to sit here” have also been put up.
When asked about this, the institute said that the posters are ‘completely unofficial’.
“We do not know who put up these posters and the institution has no involvement in this. We are also trying to find out more,” said the IIT Bombay spokesperson.
A few students from Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), an independent student body of IIT Bombay, had filed an RTI in November last year regarding the same issue. Students said that the posters have still not been removed from the hostel mess.
“Just the first step”
A student from IIT Bombay said that the guidelines are only a “bare-minimum” step towards inclusivity.
“This is the first step. But it seems like the institute is only trying to shrug off its responsibility by providing these posters. First of all, why did they not email it to all the students so everyone can have access to these guidelines? Moreover, there is no strict policy in place that decides what happened to students who do not adhere to these guidelines. Who will overlook the situation?” expressed the student of IIT Bombay who is also a member of APPSC.
Referring to the recent death of Ayush Ashna, an SC student at IIT Delhi, the student said that caste-based discrimination is prevalent across all IIT campuses.
