Caste, a shadow even in 'elite' institutes

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

BTech student of IIT Bombay committed suicide, allegedly after being harassed by a fellow student over his caste. The institute had denied this charge. Earlier this week, IIT-B asked students to refrain from asking about each other's JEE (Advanced) ranks, GATE scores or any information that may reveal their caste, etc.

The anti-discrimination guideline urges students to bond with each other, irrespective of socioeconomic status, caste and religion. It prohibits students from sending messages and jokes that are abusive, casteist, sexist or exhibit bigotry. This move is welcome.

Caste is deep-seated in progressive spaces, including classrooms, hostels and cultural fora. This is unsurprising as academia does not exist in a vacuum; it only reflects the norms prevalent in society. Caste privilege takes on the shape of a debate on 'merit', which overlooks the point that merit is not a standalone product, but a byproduct of intergenerational investments in health and nutrition, education, mentoring and a support structure.

For certain segments of society, access to such life-changing inputs is still a pipe dream because of caste discrimination that doesn't vanish when one closes one's eyes even in institutes of excellence like IITs. Unfortunately, this basic argument is even lost on 'well-educated' faculty members of many top-end institutes. Many not only fail to do their basic duties of encouraging and mentoring such students but also routinely discriminate.