We mourn yet another student suicide on this campus. Darshan Solanki,\nan 18 year old Dalit student jumped off from his hostel building on\nSunday, February 12. A life of dreams and ambitions came to an abrupt\nend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family and community of the young man would forever wonder what\nwent wrong with their bright child and a premier institute. There will\nbe explanations of how he could not survive the competition, that the\nacademic pressure is ruthless, and the IIT-dream is only for the\nstrong-willed. We do not know what pushed him to this end: caste\ndiscrimination or unendurable stress. What we know for sure is this is\nan institutional issue. Let us stop looking at student suicides across\ncampuses as isolated incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For those who come from non-urban, non-English-speaking backgrounds,\noppressed castes and low income families, what does these institutes\noffer in terms of assurance, support and care? The resources here seem\nto have different priorities altogether. How often does this institute\nconcern itself with the social and mental well-being of its\nstudents?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is no hidden fact that students from the SC\/ST community face\nimmense harassment and discrimination on the campus from students,\nfaculties, and employees. These institutional and casual ways of\ncasteism cause mental and psychological stress on students, but IITs\nlack any mechanisms to help them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have been raising the issue of the lack of mental health support\nfor our students, especially for those coming from marginalized social\nbackgrounds, with the IIT administration as well as other forums like\nthe National Commission for SC\/STs. In our earlier complaints regarding\nthis issue we had pointed out that the counselors in IIT Bombay are not\nsensitized to understand the social realities of caste that affect\nstudents from SC\/ST\/OBC communities, rendering them inadequate to offer\nsupport or, at times, aggravating students\u2019 troubles. Also, there is no\nSC\/ST counselor in the Student Wellness Centre (SWC). Despite these\nefforts from our side, the institute has only been choosing to either\nignore the issue or downplay it. In the light of this tragic incident,\nwe demand that the working of the SWC in the institute should be\nthoroughly reviewed again, the institute should immediately address the\nissue of inclusivity in the SWC and the center should be made better\naccessible to the students coming from all backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September 2014, Aniket Ambhore, a 22 year old fourth year B.Tech\nstudent of IIT Bombay, died after falling from a hostel building on the\ncampus at IIT Bombay. Aniket had taken admission in IIT Bombay from the\nSC category quota and had faced derogatory comments in the institute\nabout his academic ability. It looked like a case of suicide, but one\nwhich had resulted out of an \u2018atmosphere of discrimination\u2019 on the IIT\nBombay campus which severely affects the mental state and motivation of\nthe reserved category students. Despite being neck deep in grief, his\nparents prepared testimony of the problems they faced when seeking\nguidance and support from IIT Bombay for Aniket. In it they wrote about\nthe insensitive attitude of faculty members relating to Aniket\u2019s\nidentity as a \u2018category student\u2019 and the general atmosphere in IIT\nBombay campus where reservations are equated with lack of merit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee (A K Suresh Committee) constituted to investigate the\ncase of Aniket, accepted that Aniket was made to feel guilty about being\nadmitted to the institute through reservations. It also made a series of\nrecommendations relating to setting up of a Diversity cell, campus\nsensitisation about caste based discrimination, setting up support\nsystems, counseling, and more representation in the mentorship program\nfor SC\/ST students, encouraging more students from the SC\/ST communities\nto pursue academics in order to improve the representation of these\ncommunities in the pool of the faculty members,etc. Even after so many\nyears, the report of this officially constituted committee was never\nmade public and many of its recommendations have never got\nconsideration. While we have our reservations about the report of this\ncommittee, we demand that it should be put in the public domain and\nshould be made open for more deliberations<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After sustained efforts by the student groups on the campus including\nus, the SC\/ST cell was finally established in the institute in 2017, but\nit started doing student outreach events only last year. It still took\nmonths of effort to get basic facilities like an office space for the\ncell, mentorship training, sensitisation talks etc. A detailed mandate,\ndescribing powers and responsibilities of the SC\/ST cell, has been\nprepared with the efforts of many students and the functionaries of the\ncell. However, the institute has been extremely hesitant on implementing\nthe mandate. Without a clear mandate, the cell still struggles to find\nits appropriate place in the functioning of the institute. We see no\nother reason but an intention of keeping the cell as a hollow show-piece\nstructure, behind the delay in passing the mandate. We demand immediate\naction in this regard from the institute and passing of the mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have also been raising the issue of severe lack of representation\nof SC\/ST faculty members in IIT Bombay. Without having a more inclusive\nfaculty pool, the students from the marginalized communities will\ncontinue to feel alienated in institutions like these. We submit that\nthe blatant violation of reservation norms in faculty recruitment, delay\nin implementation and functioning of SC\/ST cell, the lack of proper\nmental health and academic support are some of the major structural\nfactors that cause such incidents to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We must understand that suicide of a student, a Dalit student in this\ncase, is not a personal\/individualized end, but something that is\nintimately related to the institutional structures that make some of us\nfeel alienated, that fail to accommodate some, hence we call it an\ninstitutional murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We owe a collective responsibility towards the family of the\ndeceased. We\u2019re answerable to the many who aspire to be in this great\ninstitute with a dream to uplift themselves and their people. As a\nsociety, as an institution, what do we enable and celebrate, and\ntherefore, what do we sideline and marginalize? How many more Darshans\nand Anikets need to die?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the night of 12th February, only after pressure from the student\ncommunity, did the director call for a condolence meeting for Darshan\nSolanki. The email from the director, informing about the incident, did\nnot even name Darshan, the apathy of the institute even in the light of\nthis grave incident is lost on the student community. We demand that the\ninstitute thoroughly investigate Darshan\u2019s death and come up with a\npublic report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We stand in solidarity with the family of Darshan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
APPSC IIT Bombay<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We mourn yet another student suicide on this campus. Darshan Solanki, an 18 year old Dalit student jumped off from his hostel building on Sunday, February 12. A life of dreams and ambitions came to an abrupt end.<\/p>\n The family and community of the young man would forever wonder what went wrong with their bright child and a premier institute. There will be explanations of how he could not survive the competition, that the academic pressure is ruthless, and the IIT-dream is only for the strong-willed. We do not know what pushed him to this end: caste discrimination or unendurable stress. What we know for sure is this is an institutional issue. Let us stop looking at student suicides across campuses as isolated incidents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15,14,13],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acdr.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acdr.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acdr.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acdr.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acdr.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/acdr.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85,"href":"https:\/\/acdr.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acdr.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acdr.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acdr.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}