IIT-Delhi did not discriminate against SC/ST students: NCM

The charges of discrimination was concerning allotment of

hostels and harassment of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) students,according to NCM officials.

A team from the NCM,led by Chairperson ,P L Punia visited the IIT campus and spoke to students and staff about the complaints. However,of the 800 students in this category,only about 15 were present as vacations are on. “We received some complaints from IIT Delhi about harassment of SC/ST students on campus and also discrimination in allotment of hostels and we have come to investigate into the matter.” said Punia.

The team,after speaking to the reserved category students,concluded that the complaints were completely “baseless”.

The average SC cut- off at IIT Delhi is 54.33 per cent of the general category cut-off. The number of SC/ST students at IIT has gone up from 93 to 123 between 2006 and 2011.

The director of IIT-Delhi Surendra Prasad said that the institute was going out of its way to help out students from reserved categories and providing them the same facilities and opportunities as the general category students.

A relaxation in performance is also provided to all SC/ST students to help them in continuing their education smoothly. While general category students require 27 credits to pass first year of their degrees,reserved category students need only 23.

“We also run a preparatory course of one year’s duration for those reserved category students who have not made it to the cut off but fall above a second cut-off. These students are taught Physics,Chemistry,Math and English for a year and after passing a test,they are admitted to the first year.” said the director.

IIT admits about 30 students in the reserved category through this programme every year.

In accordance with government policy,these students are exempted from paying tuition fee and mess charges,additionally IIT Delhi provides a scholarship of Rs 300 per month to each student from the reserved category whose parent’s annual income is below Rs 4.5 lakh.