DALITS NOT WELCOME IN IIT
MADRAS<http://roundtableindia.co.in/the-news/special-features/1715-caste-in-campus.html>
http://roundtableindia.co.in/the-news/special-features/1715-caste-in-campus.html
There are only a handful of Dalit students and faculty members at the elite
institute, but they face widespread discrimination and harassment All the
noise against extending reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in
centrally-funded institutions might be a little irrelevant given that an
institute like IIT Madras has parted with only a fraction of the 22.5
percent quota for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the
Scheduled Tribes (STs).
According to information provided by the institute’s deputy registrar, Dr K.
Panchalan, in September 2005, Dalits accounted for only 11.9 percent of the
number of students. They were even fewer in the higher courses — 2.3 percent
in ms (Research) and 5.8 percent in Ph.D. Out of a total of 4,687 students,
Dalits made up only 559.
Activists who have been fighting for proper implementation of reservations
for Dalits describe IIT Madras as a modern day agraharam — a Brahmin
enclave. Located on a 250 hectare wooded campus in the heart of the city,
the majority of the 460 faculty members and students here are Brahmins.
According to WB Vasantha Kandasamy, assistant professor in the Mathematics
department, there are just four Dalits among the institute’s entire faculty,
a meagre 0.86 percent of the total faculty strength. There are about 50 OBC
faculty members, and the rest belong to the upper castes, she says.
Vasantha says Dalit Ph.D scholars are routinely harassed. “They are forced
to change their topic of research midway. They are unduly delayed, and are
failed in examinations and vivas. It is a stressful atmosphere for them.”
She says her support of Dalit students got her into the bad books of the
management. (See Box)
There have been many agitations against the management in the past over not
filling the Dalit quota and the alleged harassment of Dalit students.
Activists say there were even fewer Dalit students and faculty members in
the institute some years ago, and it was only because of efforts by parties
like Paatali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), Viduthalai
Chiruthaigal (VC) and Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) that the situation
improved. In 1996, K. Viswanath, general secretary of the IIT SC/ST
Employees Welfare Association, remarked in a letter to the institute’s
director that the institute was yet to have a professor from the SC/ST
community even after 37 years of its existence. There were only two Dalits
of the rank of assistant professor and there was just one Dalit scientific
officer, he noted.
*Shunned: *Vasantha Kandasamy has remained an assistant professor for
the past 17 years
*IIT director MS Ananth is an Iyengar Brahmin. So are four of the six
deans in the institute*,
says former MP
Era Anbarasu
In 2000, the PDK published a book based on a study it did on the
anti-Dalit attitude in the institute. The study noted that there were
several departments at the institute where even after 41 years, “not a
single Dalit student has been selected for doing Ph.D or has successfully
completed his degree”. The study also stated that, “almost all M.Tech and ms
Students in IIT were Brahmins.” The PDK is now demanding that the institute
come out with a white paper providing details of the total number of Dalit
students who have completed postgraduate and doctoral programmes. “The
National Commission for SC/ST should closely monitor if reservation policy
for Dalits is being strictly followed in student admissions,” says
Viduthalai Rajendran, PDK general secretary.
The PDK is not alone in levelling such charges. Retired ias officer V.
Karuppan, who is state convener of the National Campaign on Dalit Human
Rights (NCDHR), recalls that in 2005 a “meritorious” Dalit student was
denied admission to the Ph.D course in the Mathematics department. “They
didn’t call him for an interview initially. But he was asked to appear for
the interview after we argued his case with the authorities. But in the
interview, they asked him irrelevant questions and failed him,” he says.
There have been many complaints of discrimination against Dalit students in
the campus. The PDK study cites the case of a Dalit student Sujee Teppal,
who had scored 94 percent in Maths, Physics, and Chemistry in the public
intermediate exam. Sujee had also secured admission in bits, Ranchi and
bits, Pilani but chose to attend IIT Madras, where in spite of her
meritorious track record she was made to join the mandatory one-year
“preparatory course” for Dalit students. According to the PDK study, “at the
end of the course in which she only re-learnt her 12th standard syllabus,
she was declared failed.” The institute refused to reverse its decision in
spite of the intervention of the National Commission for SC/ST and the then
state SC/ST minister Selvaraj in her favour.
Another serious charge against the institute is that successive directors
have flouted rules in appointing faculty members, and do not advertise
vacancies in newspapers. Former Congress MP Era Anbarasu has brought the
issue to the notice of Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh in
several letters. In the memorandum submitted to the minister on September 2,
2006, he states: “The ambiguity is apparent because even the number of
vacancies is not announced. In order to broaden this arbitrariness,
applications to the entry level position of assistant professor are invited
for all the 15 departments at the same time. Norms and guidelines for
selection are wilfully abandoned by the respective departments.”
Anbarasu wants a high-level committee to probe irregularities in
appointments and the violation of reservation policies by the IIT
management. He has levelled charges against director MS Ananth, whom he
calls a “highly casteist man”. He says that disregarding all norms, Ananth
has mostly chosen faculty members from his own community of Iyengar
Brahmins. Of the six deans in the institute, four are from the Iyengar
community.
In his memorandum to Singh, Anbarasu has demanded that the present director
be replaced with someone from the OBC/SC/ST community as the institute has
had only Brahmins as directors so far. “I met the minister (Arjun Singh)
three or four times and discussed with him these issues. He promised to
order a probe, but nothing has happened till now,” he says.
A PIL filed by Karuppan last year against the allegedly flawed selection
process in IIT Madras was dismissed by the High Court. Karuppan has now
filed a review petition. He also met the IIT director along with a senior
leader of the CPI to discuss the reservation issue, and says the director
told him that no policy of reservation for SC/ST was applicable to IIT
Madras. Karuppan says there are several cases pending in courts against the
institute’s selection and reservation policy. They include writ petitions by
the IIT Backward Classes Employees Welfare Association, and the Vanniar
Mahasangam.
An angry Thol Thirumavalavan, general secretary of the Dalit Panthers of
India, says, “Dalits are only working as sweepers and scavengers in the
institute”. He wants the IIT management to release a white paper containing
details of appointments and admissions given to Dalits and OBCs. “The Tamil
Nadu government should demand this information from the institute,” he says.
When Tehelka tried to meet IIT Director MS Ananth to get his views on the
allegations against him and the institute, his secretary wanted this
correspondent to send a mail stating the purpose for the interview. In the
mail to the director, it was stated that the interview was needed “on the
issue of SC/ST reservation policy in IIT, Madras.” His reaction on
Anbarasu’s memorandum to the Union hrd minister levelling charges of
corruption against him was also sought. However, his secretary said the
director was not available for comments.
Courtsey:TEHELKA<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main31.asp?filename=Ne160607Dalits_not.asp>
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