Nearly a decade after University of Hyderabad research scholar Rohith Vemula died by suicide over alleged caste discrimination on campus, comprehensive and punitive regulatory mechanisms are still awaited. On April 24, the Supreme Court gave the University Grants Commission (UGC) the go-ahead to notify its latest ‘equity regulation’ draft to supersede the existing one from 2012. A National Task Force, set up by the apex court in March, is also tasked with recommending solutions against discrimination abetting campus suicides. Amid these divergent exercises, the mothers of Vemula and another victim, Payal Tadvi, have argued before the court that the draft UGC guidelines do not address the core issue––normalisation of discrimination of marginalised community students through ostracism in higher educational institutions.
They asked for the UGC draft guidelines to be in abeyance until the task force had submitted its report. The petitioners are unhappy with the new draft merging regulations related to ragging, sexual harassment, and other atrocities with caste discrimination. The UGC must appreciate that caste discrimination is a much more deviant social crime than ragging. It is at the core of centuries of oppression faced by marginalised communities. Powerful laws have failed to check it over the decades. Guidelines exist even now to identify discrimination, but in the absence of oversight, accountability and punishment apparatuses specifically dealing with complaints of caste-based discrimination, they remain ineffective.
Caste discrimination is a silent actor, turning campuses into battlegrounds for marginalised students to constantly fight for their dignity. Equality cells and counselling services do exist but are meaningless if students must return to the same antagonistic environment. The panacea for caste bias is fighting institutional casteism and not filing police complaints. Transformative justice must be the cornerstone against discrimination beyond punitive means and through structural changes. Giving admission to marginalised students provides them no solace if the campuses remain socially and culturally alien to them. Education empowers the marginalised, and if university administrations create an equitable atmosphere, it can also be the social equaliser. The UGC must acknowledge institutionalised casteism on campuses as one more link in the chain of historical injustices and treat it as a violation of the constitutional rights of students. Caste discrimination is a social evil, not a felony.