Discrimination, failure of support system led to Solanki’s death, student collectives tell IIT panel

“If you feel so much caste discrimination then remove reservation,” read a comment by a student on a Whatsapp group formed post Solanki’s death. Another comment read, “If one has to score higher to get a seat in chemical engineering and another is grabbing a seat in computer science with lower marks, then there definitely is some contrast.”

The collectives quoted a student as saying, “I was 18 years old when a professor told me I don’t deserve to be in IIT because I availed reservation. It broke my confidence and took me three to four years to fix myself.”

These are some incidents shared by the collectives with the panel, along with their depositions to prove that caste discrimination does exist on IIT campus.

“Many students have contacted us because of the caste discrimination they are facing. We have directed them to the SC/ST cell. Despite the countless cases coming to them, for the director to claim that the campus harbours no caste discrimination is audacious and unfair towards SC/ST students who came out bravely to raise their voices against harassment. Even the complete silence of the SC/ST cell after the director’s statement shatters the trust students placed on the cell,” read the deposition submitted to the committee by Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), a student collective.

The student collective pointed out several other aspects of caste discrimination, starting from severe lack of representation of SC/ST faculty members, lack of mental health support for SC/ST students on campus, and the complaint filed against the former head of the institute’s mental health service – the Student Wellness Centre (SWC) — whose social media post against reservation had raised concerns.

Deposition by another student collective pointed out that “academic stress, caste discrimination, lack of mental health support and lack of support group to make freshers from SC/ST community comfortable” played a “key role” in Solanki’s death. “Students from vulnerable backgrounds, if unable to get proper support at appropriate time, end up with only two options – either to end the perpetual helplessness by taking their lives or drop out from the course altogether. It is a shocking and shameful for IIT Bombay, that almost eight to ten students from such backgrounds dropout every year…,” read the statement.

Despite attempts, the IIT administration was not available for a comment.