The level of caste discrimination in higher education institutions is also high.

In the last ten years, the voice of equality and justice has gone far behind in the entire environment. There is a wave of making reservation, which is the path of equality, suspicious. In such a situation, equality cannot be achieved without eradicating caste discrimination and oppression in higher education institutions. In the last five years, more than 13 thousand Dalit, backward and tribal students have left their studies in IITs, IIMs and Central Universities. Whether they left their studies or were forced to leave, this needs to be seen and understood.

After independence, we certainly succeeded in establishing equality of votes, but equality at the social level remains a distant dream. In the last ten years, we have moved in the completely opposite direction. Manusmriti seems to be determining the daily routine more than the Constitution. In the midst of the spreading fire of open Dalit oppression, Modi had to say that spare my Dalit brothers. Despite that, even touching the water pot in schools leads to murder. How so much hatred and violence arose, this remains a very difficult question. In our country, we get caste discrimination in our upbringing itself. We are trained in our homes not to play with certain children, play but not to go to their homes, even if you go to their homes, not to drink water, not to eat anything. Punishment is also given for violating this training so that the crime is not committed again.

This means that in the homes of the so-called upper castes, people are taught not to pay attention to Dalits and tribals, to ignore and turn a deaf ear to them. This childhood training becomes fatal for someone when they grow up.

Then, in the middle class homes, providing separate utensils and a separate place to sit for the maid also creates a ‘separate’ culture. Separate wells, separate settlements, separate streets, separate crematoriums have been established as a system and our social system does not allow any violation of this. Walking without slippers around the houses of upper castes and not even riding a bicycle is still happening today.

Not only does there arise disputes over wearing new clothes, keeping a moustache, riding a horse in a wedding procession, but murders also take place. The strength of this social system is that it is not seen as a crime but as an honour. We can clearly see that there are strict rules and regulations to maintain this system of discrimination and to implement it in everyday life.

Seeing this happening in homes and the surrounding environment, anyone can be ready to accept this life as normal and universal. Rather, one can be ready to stand up for the maintenance of such a social system.

Silently drinking tea in a separate cup at tea shops and keeping it clean comes under the category of maintaining the system and maintaining peace. Accepting untouchability is to follow the social system and the dignity of religion. Such a peace and system in which there is discrimination, belittling, crushing the feeling of equality and presenting oppression as justice obviously gives rise to the possibility of criticism, protest and rebellion.

In such a social system, the system of discrimination and untouchability in our higher educational institutions will also be made ‘high’. The way our villages and countryside are behaving, the same way our higher institutions are also behaving. Our Parliamentary Committee has reported that Dalit, OBC and Adivasi students are never allowed to fulfil their quota in IITs, IIMs and Central Universities.

Even those who score well in theory are failed in practicals. Nearly 98% of professors and more than 90% of assistant professors in institutions of higher education belong to the so-called upper class. How much do these people, who have gone through rigorous training in their homes and society, understand real justice?

Despite being a very small part of the population, their huge majority must be boosting their morale. That is why even though the number of Dalit, OBC and Adivasis studying in these institutions may be less than the desired number, their number is nearly 56% among those who commit suicide.

The data of our government itself shows that more than 11 thousand posts of teachers are vacant. Out of 45 Central Universities, only 33 had 1,097 posts of teachers in SC/ST category to be filled but only 212 were filled. Out of 33 universities, 18 had no teachers from this category

Not a single post has been filled. This happening and continuing to happen will only add to the despair and desperation of this section of the population which sees its rights being lost every day and in comparison, it will also highlight the arrogance and arrogance of the so-called upper castes.

We have normalised caste discrimination and oppression by institutionalising it. A committee study on AIIMS revealed that Dalit, backward and tribal students are repeatedly failed without any reason.

This country lost a shining star like Rohith Vemula due to this institutional casteism and oppression. Modi Raj is now being called electoral dictatorship but Rohith Vemula was the first martyr against the strangulation of democracy.

Rohit Vemula’s fight was for his rights but the department, vice chancellor, local BJP leader and even the country’s education minister were involved in harassing him and pushing him towards suicide. There was a demand to make Rohith Vemula Act against this harassment and humiliation in educational institutions. But today the file of Rohith Vemula case has been closed. Due to the everyday discrimination and humiliation in the highest institutions, more than 13 thousand students are forced to give up their dream of a better life and the passion to do something for the country.

Payal Tadvi, who was preparing to become a doctor in Mumbai, told in her suicide note how discrimination, humiliation and harassment crosses all limits. Her fellow students are included in it, teachers and administration who ignored her complaint are also included in it.

She wrote that she was not allowed to do what she had the right to learn and work for, she was not allowed to go to the labor room, when other students were learning in the labor room, Payal had to stand outside. She was given the work to be done by the clerk and there was no one to listen to her complaints. It is in these circumstances that students choose life over a better life, leave education and return.

The suicide of B.Tech students Anil Kumar and Ayush Ashna in IIT, the capital of the country, had once shaken the capital. The students there also expressed concern about the environment that pushes them towards suicide. But the teachers and students from the so-called upper caste background have no idea of ??the pressures that these students have to go through.

The existence of such situations in our higher education institutions shows that education is still not working to transform lives. The life behavior that is happening in our uneducated or less educated societies is being repeated in higher education institutions as well.

The Rohith Vemula Act that emerged after Rohith Vemula’s martyrdom has not been implemented anywhere. There is a law against ragging and it is being implemented too, but the institutions are still silent and careless against ‘caste ragging’. Vipin Veetil, a Dalit teacher of IIT Madras, also had to leave the institute due to caste discrimination. We are not creating any justice-giving system.

While dedicating the Constitution to the country, Ambedkar had said that we have certainly achieved political equality, but social equality is a complex battle and without social equality, political equality will also not survive. Today we are at this crossroads. In the last ten years, the voice of equality and justice has gone far behind in the entire environment. There is a wave of making the reservation, which is the path of equality, questionable.

In such a situation, equality and justice cannot be achieved without eradicating caste discrimination and oppression in institutions of higher education. Obviously, the so-called upper caste class will not take this task in its hands. For this, the deprived sections will have to take the lead. (Naresh Prerna is a poet and playwright.)

Courtesy : Hindi News