[Reader-list] Outlook Piece On Dalit Students' Suicide

[anoop kumar]

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?277215

DALIT STUDENTS
A Dissonance In Saraswati’s Divine Veena
The spectre of caste prejudice lingers on even in our most prized
institutions
CHANDRANI BANERJEE<http://www.outlookindia.com/peoplefnl.aspx?pid=3899&author=Chandrani+Banerjee>


There are no happy endings in this tale, only tragedy. A series of
heartrending stories have shone the spotlight on the plight of Dalit
students in some of India’s premium educational institutions. According to a
recent report prepared by Insight Foundation, around 18 students belonging
to the scheduled caste scheduled tribe (SC/ST) and other backward classes
(OBCs) have committed suicide in institutes of higher learning across the
country in the past four years. Senthil Kumar’s parents are agricultural
labourers and constantly on the move, managing to barely eke out a
semi-decent living. Theirs was a life grounded in hope. Hope that their son
will do them proud by becoming the first person from their village to obtain
a PhD after completing his doctoral dissertation in physics from Hyderabad
Central University. But even that flicker of a hope was abruptly
extinguished when Senthil took his own life in 2008—unable, allegedly, to
bear the discrimination that was meted out to him at the university.

Faculty members, students and members of the Dalit Solidarity group—S.
Anand, Ravi Kumar and Suneetha Achyut—brought the matter to the attention of
the authorities. Subsequently, a fact-finding committee was formed to
conduct an inquiry. Its findings pointed to a lack of sensitivity on part of
the institute. The inquiry’s report states: “Inconsistency and subjectivity
in the standards applied for coursework and for allocation of supervisors in
the 2006 batch led to an understandable perception that has gained among the
SC/ST students in the school of physics, that they are being discriminated
against on the basis of their caste.”

Suneetha, who was actively involved in mobilising the students to attract
the attention of the authorities, doesn’t mince words: “The fact-finding
committee clearly mentioned in its report that inconsistency and
subjectivity in the standards led to an understandable perception among the
Dalit students that they are being discriminated against. Now, we believe
the hint alone is enough, but if they’re bent on overlooking it, then no one
can actually be of any help.”

Suneetha says Senthil’s parents are still in a state of shock. They have
received some compensation from the university—after the intervention of the
activists. In that, they’re one of the lucky ones. The larger point that the
activists are looking to make is that there are cases where the parents have
no idea that they can do something to get justice if their ward meets with a
similar fate. “The bigger issue is that the authorities responsible are yet
to even acknowledge that there is a problem. Looking for solutions comes
after,” says Suneetha.

Professor Vinod Parvala of Hyderabad Central University chaired the inquiry
into Senthil’s death. Speaking to *Outlook*, he says: “There is a need for
social sensitivity, for sure. Even in our fact-finding report, we have
pointed out some issues. The university’s faculty is a class apart as far as
their respective subjects are concerned, but they have no idea about the
changes that’ve taken place in society. So they need to be sensitised.” He
adds that while some steps have been taken, there’s more that needs doing.
“The university has already issued some guidelines, but the age-old divides
will only truly disappear once the thought process has been changed.”


*Seeking Answers* Manish Kumar’s parents want to know why. (Photograph by
Nirala Tripathi)

In a more recent case, Manish Kumar, a student of IIT-Roorkee, reportedly
faced a similar situation. The third-year student allegedly could not cope
with being the butt of both the faculty’s and the students’ constant taunts
and belittlement. He committed suicide in February 2011. “From day one, they
made him feel inferior and attempted to convince him that he was unfit to be
a student at such a premier institute. The students used to tell him that he
should leave the institute and go somewhere else because he had a lower IQ,”
says Rajendra Kumar, Manish’s father.



“Institutions have to form social environs within which their dalit students
don’t feel alienated from the other students.”Narendra Jhadav, Member,
Planning Commission


“We had taken the matter up with the warden and the college assured us that
proper action would be taken. The warden knows the names of the students who
had troubled him (Manish),” he says. Frustrated with the lack of interest
and action taken by IIT-Roorkee, Kumar filed a FIR with the Roorkee police.
And even that hasn’t been easy—the apathy shown by the police in registering
a case forced him to go to court. Only after the court’s intervention did
the FIR get registered. However, there has been no progress in the
investigation.

And then there’s the story of Bal Mukund, a third-year All India Institute
of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) student from the Sagar district of Madhya
Pradesh, who committed suicide in March 2010 after allegedly being a
constant victim of the biases of the AIIMS faculty. He told his parents
about the alleged discrimination and filed a complaint with the authorities
in Delhi—there’s no record of such a complaint. His father had sold his
ancestral land to finance his son’s studies. After Bal Mukund’s death, his
family has been left devastated and debt-ridden.

“The authorities claimed he was depressed. I want to know why (they made
this contention). He wanted to study medicine and had gotten admitted into
AIIMS. He was extremely happy and had been doing well in his initial years.
What had happened to him, all of a sudden, that he felt he had to take this
extreme step? We are shattered. I want the CBI to investigate the matter,”
says Gulab Chand Ahirwal, Bal Mukund’s father.

Tragedies like these spurred a group of Dalit professionals and students to
help create awareness. The group also aims to set up a round-the-clock
helpline to foster awareness among the students that suicide is never an
option—not even as a last resort. Anoop Kumar, an advocate and activist who
leads the group, is meeting with the parents of the students who committed
suicide. He explains, “We are not doing this to get compensation. This is an
awareness campaign that will help people deal with the situation. Parents
can come and use this platform to talk to various authorities and check on
the situation before it gets worse.”

The authorities, too, have taken some interest. Both the home ministry and
the ministry of social justice and empowerment have given verbal assurances
that they will look into the matter and say an inquiry may be ordered
soon—though nothing has happened as yet. The director of the Indian
Institute of Dalit studies, Rajendra P. Mamgain, says, “The long history of
such incidents have shown that this is a very real problem. Sensitivity is
required at every level and students need to be included in the activities
of the institutes they are associated with. Their confidence goes down when
they are being left out. The ‘mainstream’ students have to understand that
their attitude can contribute to bettering the social fabric. We all have to
work towards fostering a positive attitude among Dalit students.”

Narendra Jhadav, a member of the planning commission and an activist who has
long been working towards bringing the OBCs into—and feel like they are a
part of—the mainstream, says, “Integration is required and institutes have
to, through their governing bodies, create social environments in which the
students don’t feel left out. This is needed at each step. The situation
needs to be looked into and addressed.” By spotlighting such incidents, some
of which are in court, the activists hope to douse the fires of prejudice
raging on Indian campuses. If the list of Dalit student suicides is to stop
growing, admitting the problem is the first step to solving it.

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