delhi university

Darshan Solanki

Last month, news of the death by suicide of first-year undergraduate Darshan Solanki at IIT Bombay was met with widespread protest in academic campuses across the country. While IIT Bombay’s internal probe committee concluded that there was no evidence of caste-based discrimination, a suicide note was found by the Special Investigation Team constituted by the Maharashtra government, which points to caste-based discrimination.

Readers — especially those on college campuses — interested in the issue are encouraged to consult websites such as Caste on Campus, which extensively document violations of reservation norms at IITs, or the statement from the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) which emphasises the institutional nature of caste discrimination at the IITs.