All these universities seem to be following the same playbook on how to exclude Dalits. The academic performance of the students seems to be less important than their lower caste status. Ragging, institutional bullying and lack of support for Dalit students causes many of them to commit suicide, and discourages other Dalits from applying to these important centres of learning, leading them to be excluded from these fields. This sends a clear signal to young Dalit aspirants that these prestigious colleges have no place for them, regardless of what the reservation policy dictates. The toxic belief that ‘quota students’ are innately less able or talented than ‘mainstream students’ is at the heart of this exclusion.
The IIT-JEE exam, which aims to test a student’s aptitude for engineering, is not only tough but also vastly different from the central or state board exams that high school students clear in school. The problems challenge logic and theory in a way that makes it almost impossible for anyone who is unfamiliar with its ‘code’ to solve them. The coaching institutes, including the one that I attended, teach the patterns, codes and techniques to finish the examination paper in three hours. About 82 per cent of Indian students either take additional coaching for IIT-JEE and other science-based competitive exams at the numerous coaching institutes that dot every small and big town or directly go to Kota, Rajasthan, to study at one of the 150 ‘cram schools’, which pretty much guarantee you a spot on the list if you are admitted and follow their instructions. Even local coaching is expensive, costing about Rs 2,000-3,000 per month nearly sixteen years ago in 2001- 03 when I took these classes. The fees for the Kota schools can go up to Rs 1 lakh a month, which doesn’t include the cost of living—making it prohibitively expensive for students from marginalized backgrounds. It’s not that students can’t clear these exams without coaching; many SC/ST students in fact do, but since they come from marginalized backgrounds, they lack other support structures. That, along with their government school education, often leads many SC/ST/OBC students to drop out or be expelled for low grades. In 2015, 90 per cent of the students that IIT Roorkee dismissed on account of low grades were SC/ST/OBC. Added to this is the distress, discrimination and systemic failure that ‘quota students’ face at these prestigious institutions. Nearly 80 per cent of student suicides in IITs till 2011 were of Dalit students.
IIT students have a long history of opposing constitutional reservation and several members of YFE in 2006 were from its various colleges. Many used the IIT Roorkee dropouts incident to argue that ‘quota students’ are inherently talentless and don’t belong in the colleges, instead of examining the conditions that led to their dropping out. IITs across the country admit a disproportionately high number of upper-caste students in the general category, which Harvard-based anthropologist Ajantha Subramanian argues isn’t as casteless or ‘meritorious’ as it seems. Using IIT Madras as a case study, she examines how when the number of European engineers in India decreased at the beginning of the twentieth century, Tamil Brahmins were the single largest group in Madras Presidency to replace them. They also filled over 70 per cent seats in regional engineering institutes despite forming only 3 per cent of the population, and were disproportionately represented in most modern professions along with other upper castes. At IIT Madras, not only the students but also the faculty are overwhelmingly upper caste, with 464 professors drawn from the ‘general category’, 59 OBCs, 11 SCs, and 2 STs. She argues that association of ‘general category’ with merit is biased because the students from that category are assumed to be upper caste. During her interviews with several former IIT students, she discovered that many believed that while general category students got bad grades because they were ‘having fun’, reserved category students simply didn’t have the intellectual capability to do well. Unsurprisingly, the administration supports that idea, especially former director P. V. Indiresan who believed that ‘the talented’ upper castes deserved ‘rights of their own’ compared to the ‘socially deprived’ who demanded special privileges.
The idea that upper castes are inherently ‘talented’ while the reserved category SC/ST/OBC students are meritless is as hollow as it is casteist. In an anonymous study on the state of female Dalit students in a prestigious Indian university, PhD candidates and research fellows complained that they were discouraged from applying to the generous Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship for SC/ST students. They were told that they didn’t ‘deserve free fellowships’. And the faculty impose their casteist ideas in the universities in many ways. The University of Hyderabad’s ‘Brahmin well’ which was dug in the 1980s for Professor V. Kannan is a ridiculous example of that. Kannan only allowed other upper-caste students and professors to access it and lower-caste students and faculty couldn’t come anywhere near it till he retired in 2014. Upper-caste professors not only discriminate against their lower-caste colleagues but also question their ‘merit’ and their right to their careers. Professor Vasant Tarade, a former principal of Mumbai’s Sydenham College, recalled that a Brahmin professor refused to use his chair after he retired.
Years of being accused of caste-based discrimination have had some impact and institutes have created some systems to support the reserved category students. The AIIMS website informs us that the campus has a SC/ST grievance cell, while Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has a personalized academic support system and the IITs have English language classes to help students from vernacular language backgrounds. Yet, as Professor Thorat notes, these institutes ‘lack the will to implement them in full’. Universities and colleges should be centres for learning new ideas and questioning the status quo. Instead, they become places of discrimination, exclusion and institutional harassment. Young minds are bred with hate, ready to assert their caste hierarchy over the next generation. Students are not taught why reservation is essential for those from the lower castes, who have been excluded from education, art, culture and even owning property, to reach a somewhat level playing field. Without reservation, Dalits will remain on the fringes, unable to access even the most basic opportunities.
This excerpt was taken with permission from the book ‘Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir’ by Yashica Dutt. It was published by Aleph.
To all the people who say that the author has explored only one side of the story..read the article again..the author does mention how the so called upper class rich students score high marks in the IIT exam..and how it is unfair to expect students from the marginalized sections who did not receive any coaching to score at that level. You just miss the point that it’s not the inherent intelligence that’s causing this disparity in marks rather the expensive coaching. And how are marks a proper indicator of inherent intelligence.. it’s just one kind of intelligence, nothing more.
Article lacks ground reality . Is still based on the view point which would be of a 1990’s guy . Above all first shouldn’t we think aren’t the IIT’s wise enough to think in a way you thought . Your this article would have already been discussed . And remember a student watching government money is to be expelled and it’s happening irrespective of what caste they belong to . This is just highlighting stuff . Being an Iitian I probably have the right to Express my opinion that providing entries directly into institutions through reservations without developing basic skills before that is the root cause of the mistake . And hence if required ask government to provide quality secondary high school education . This area is always overseen . How ever reservation which does nothing to student except stressing his life is seen as saviour which as I have seen is not .
It is surprising how people of your calibre (based on your coments ) gotadmission in iits
For GC, acknowledge the fact that lower castes have been deprived of education, land, money since ages. What’s the difference between the upper castes and British? British had the same attitude towards Indians as Upper castes have towards lower ones.
We support the statement given by Shashi tharoor that british owe us reparations in the form a penny per year for next 200 years. Then how much the castists owe to the lower castes for next 2000 years?
Your entire argument is correct. Being a person from upper caste hindu brahmin, I accept ur logic. But I cannot agree that a backward class pupil needs special consideration for marking his answer sheets. It shld hve been equal for general & reserved category students. Instead of giving them special category of marking procedures, they shld hve been given all benefits to compete with the general category students with dignity.
It seems exaggerated. A learned scholar/ teacher will never discriminate on the basis of cast, religion etc. But that may happen on the basis of knowledge and involvement. We should not colour it blue.petty allegations.
ThePrint you do understand that you are probably going to get sued for spreading misinformation and not fact checking the source with respect to today’s context. Moreover IITs are doing nothing wrong – they give every student equal opportunity. It’s upto the student if they want to play computer games or actually study when they are in IIT.
I just want to add some one important point. The cut-offs for admission to these top-notch colleges vary by a huge margin for the general and reserved category students especially for the SC/ST category. This leads to the belief that they are not at an the same level intellectually.
Hope this gives some perspective.
Crap!!! Thats what I could think of after reading whats written. Intellect has nothing to do with castes and creeds so why reservation based on caste. Reservation is an evil that has been engrained in our socio political circle and has caused as much harm to SC’s and ST’s as to Generals. Generals lose oppotunities to less abled SC/ST who has got that berth even after scoring low. SC/ST on the other hand has gotten accustomed to the reservation and take comfort in the ease that reservation has provided them with in turn burying their ability to compete hard. The author has put her views but can she answer the below question:
“Does a dalit candidate competes as hard as a General candidate?”.
Wow. -_- No reservation system should be provided to all. Every one should be served equally. History is history. Its time to change and move towards stability.
This is a really biased article just showing one side. Why do you think they believed the SC/St students are less intelligent? Because they came to IIT without studying as much as “general caste” students. Compare the cutoffs for Sc/St and general and you will see where this stereotype comes from.
Also I really laughed when the author called coaching institutions “cram schools”. Yes coaching insgituons are bad but they are in no way cram schools. In face there is much more cramming involved in regular schools. Calling coaching institutions cram schools is like, “naach n jaaane aangan tedha”.
This was just a really bused article created to gain fake sympathy for SC/ST
This article seems to be like an assignment made by a student just in the rush hour before the submission deadline with only one side of story potraied in half facts because of either lack of experience journalism shown by the author or having some personal grudge towards upper caste.
Mostly facts mentioned in this particular article are appearing to be one’s own views not likely to had characteristics of a sole truth and don’t know about even author seems interested in writting something relevant or just trying to sell some other smokin hot stories baked right in his/her head so someone might ought to read the book which forcibly advertised with this pretty cool blog, just kidding guys .
Now the position has been improved very much.daliths are less intelgent genitically .this is wrong concept.now daliths are far better than others in education other than IITs. the day will come when scs will over come ocs. Most of the upper caste professor s have The disease of discrimination .they don’t think of history of daliths.merit is The product of environmental conditions.
When you get inside a college this prestigious with an Excellent faculty you sure can excel but ask the general candidate who missed the seat for 1 or 2 marks ….if the quota won’t have been there none of the dalit student would have got a seat in first place …do you think all the general candidate who missed the seat were undeserving and the dalit candidate more deserving if so your knowledge is questionable…..
Its better not to give a seat to a bum who is not able to score descent marks. Now idiots like you make an article to spark the people belonging to minority (which most of them are technically not). Then they come up and start making chaos all around. This is causing serious harm to our nation. Thats why india is regarded as country of bank po’s and call centres. We focus on quantity but not quality. Its hard to gulp the truth but this is the reality. Ask a general category student how hard it has become for them to get something good nowadays. Bums
a looser has written article …. students blessed with health and brain … cannot evolve and this is shame to say … we don’t fight for Braille indicators …. ramps for the one who needs support …
Guess they qualify with a lower cutoff … and there are poor in other castes also ….
you should have fought for good schooling … all sc sts should join hand to uplift weaker community .. but practice says they look for their comfort zone ….
hope i went to school… so reservation was proposed just for 10 years for empowerment not for making them paralysed ….
More said is less…. better fight for quality education for all from starting rather than fighting for reservations
You guys should ban your newspaper . You guys always publish rubbish articles and you don’t have any other real news if a student get admission in iit by only scoring 100 marks in iit and the other had to score 245 marks to get into that same branch . IIT is institute of integellince not caste discrimination . If a student get admission only by scoring 75 marks then how would he understands the study of iit
You are a jerk trying to get cheap publicly
The US would not have become what it is today if it had reserved half of the seats for the African American community. The Affirmative action practised in the US is on a case by case basis, just the way it should be. Also, if it is wrong to believe that all the SC/ST are incapable of performing well, it is also wrong to believe that all the SC/ST candidates have been discriminated against. There are a lot of cases where such candidates come from very rich backgrounds and exploit their social ‘backwardness’ to their benefit. I mean come on, the way upper castes behaved with lower caste is nowhere bad as in comparison to the treatment of the African American community in the 18th and 19th century. With an acceptance rate of less than 1%, please do not expect me to feel bad for getting admission into an IIT as a general candidate with a rank below 1000. At least I know that I had the intellect and am here because of my honest hard work, even though my father passed away when I was 4 and admist such financial difficulties. No maam, you have no right to make me feel bad about my ‘privileged’ status. Lastly, I would recommend you to look at the condition of South Africa, it is on its way to become a failed nation state. This is what happens when you give power to incompetent people in the name of social upliftment. If that is what you want India to become, by all means go ahead, increase reservation to 100%, and flourish in your ignorance. Final point : An average white American cannot afford an Ivy League Education, does not mean that Harvard discriminates against the middle class. Maybe you can pressure the IIT’s to tolerate the bullshit of academically poor people, but keep in mind that no company to coddle such people. Such people are lucky to get placed at all.
this is the kind of casteist undertones the author is talking about
This is funny. As a child, I and my friends never even knew about castes until we heard about reservation. It was when the thought was subconscious formed in our minds, that these people are ‘different’ from us, not necessarily in a bad way, but they have a separate status, which any type of registration form would then remind us.
Then, as I grew up, I started noticing the disparities and discrimination.
Casteism is a reality in many parts of our country today, I concede, but what truly makes others look down on these entitled brats is their playing the victim. We know a person whose family had a respectable income and position raging about inequalities he faced after he got admission in college at one third the percentage required by general category kids who were fucking giving it their all.
Even at jobs, they expect others to shoulder their workload because ‘they come from a discriminated community’. If you people keep on playing the victim card, then others WILL look down upon you. It is your job, do it yourself. Ask for help, not be some entitled rudeass.
There is even a law that can have a person behind the bars if you simply point your finger at them and say they called you a dalit. What more do you people want? Should we lay carpets wherever you stomp or should we prostate ourselves before you for forgiveness about something our grandparents did to your grandparents concerning an issue we ourselves don’t believe in? Casteism is a reality in many parts of the country, but some people make it an issue where it previously wasn’t. If you gave your heart and soul for something and the system rejects merit, you will feel wronged. When these kids still complain in college, you will feel annoyed. And funnily enough, the benefits of reservation are largely monopolized by the so-called creamy layer. The actual victims, I have personally witnessed one such situation, don’t get them.
I will say that not all are like this. I have friends who come from reserved communities and are normal people, but the vast majority insists on asserting that they are separate. So they are. I don’t care about caste, but if a person from a family with respectable income and family gets special treatment while a person from poor financial background and uneducated parents is left clamouring just because he is from a general caste, well, we can’t help but feel disgust.
Reservation is a barrier in integration of all castes. Because anytime we forget about castes, we will be reminded by various sources like application forms and entitled leeches.
Great book written by great writer. Realy a book worth award .
I hope you are being sarcastic
Ye article kalpnik aur lekhak ki kalpnik rachna. Iska vastavik jeevan se koi sambandh nahi hai.. Kisi vastavik jeevan se agar koi nata mile to vah ek sanyog samjha gaye
Kuchh bhi likh rhe ho.
Mai bhi IITB ka student hu, yaha ane ke baad nobody cares what caste you belong to. Anyone deserving is given opportunities to grow and nurture themselves. You have written that most of the dropouts are lower castes but you completely excluded how many of them got good marks and did excellent things with their life.
Pure rubbish chhap rhe hai ye log.
Keep in mind baba bheem rao ambedkar, he was the elite coz of education , use that as the weapon and work as hard as possible.
Bahan Ji, Pls don’t pollute IIT with your castism
Please do understand difference between economically weaker section people who cannot afford and coaching …dalit is not a synonym of economically weaker section or poor …being a news writer stop spreading hoax and take some social responsibility and do some homework on what u r writing ..?
Well, maybe reservation is the main problem and the main cause of the discrimination.
And it seems that the writer has a grudge against the Bramhins , like it’s their fault that they’re capable.
It shows caste based reservation has failed as it could not reach to people woth lower financial back ground of reserved category. Whereas financially able reserved category took the advantages for almost 3 generations. So time to change the system so that financially backward people get reservation. Due to PAN and aadhar it is easy to track and reach them as well.
Let Dalits compete with the uppercast without reservation, it would help them more . They would surely develop themselves , but if support is given to them these dalit students will somewhere develope a habit and would find difficulty to progress without support.
I want to drop a comment about the part where you said it’s a common belief that when general students drop out it’s seen as a result of having fun and when backward caste students drop out it’s seen as lack of talent…I am a student and in my opinion, this belief exists because an SC/ST student doesn’t need as much marks and rank as compared to General category…so eventually those SC/ST students who couldn’t have entered IITs if they were general, now can get admission. Which means SC/ST students doesn’t have to put as much effort as a general student. That’s why its a common belief that they aren’t as smart as their general counterparts.
I come from IIT. And I think their poor performance in college is mostly because they got it easy in the JEE competition and subsequently they couldn’t keep up. Otherwise, I have seen my category friends performing very well despite their background. And anyway, both general and category students can come from difficult background. And personally, I have never seen any discrimination, neither at my college nor in any other IIT that I know of.
It’s not that the upper castes are considered inherently more talented.
Anyone who has been admitted through the usual procedure will be generally considered superior to someone else who came in at 1/3rd of the cutoff.
I study at an NIT, many of my friends do too, and never have I heard anyone talking about the caste of a student or professor, let alone discriminate on its basis.
No kind of discrimination or casteism exists in IITB atleast
If you really are a science student and wish to understand the beauty of the field, you must know that the exam has no code that can be used to crack it. All you need is a deep conceptual understanding of something called the subject of physics, a tool named mathematics and the applicational aspects of it. The discrimination you talk about against a dalit is pseudo. After 70 years of independence, you need to have an influential outcome, states that you do not deserve to be a part of these institutions. Again get sane, you try and promote reservation, those who use it as an opportunity are going to exploit the system for personal gains. And the institutions will have the brand diluted.
Why do you have to classify yourself as a dalit? And then speak about discrimination?. You yourself differentiate between yourself and others. All you are is an Indian equal to anyone else. If you can , come beatthe mainstream crowd and get a place for yourself. Why beg?
Of course bro, calling coaching institute “cram schools” is like, “nach na Jaane aangan tedha”
Many more years, even before the birth of krishna or ram….there has always been this discrimination…..and within 70 years the upper castes people are fed up with merit discrimination. And what about sufferings dalits went through from 5 b.c.
Well then why don’t you go and attack England because Indians suffered from their rule for several hundred years. And with same logic you should let women totally rule over you instead of supporting equality
why are you comparing economic backwardness with social backwardness?
reservation is based on social backwardness only,isn’t it?can u explain why dalits from well to do families also score less than general category(not upper caste) ?
i have an explanation-they know on their mind that even if they score less their place is reserved in instituitions and jobs……so why work hard when the govt is working hard for them
Then just remove reservation and let it just boil down to merit. Reservation only for economically weak should be supported.
That’s correct cause you should have tat quality to remain in such prestigious institutes
The only solution for this is to set up exclusive IITs and IIMs for these down trodden students. Then nation will know who are talented. In rlys one study concluded that sc/st and BC employees excelling than others in bringing rlys to development.
What is said about Professor Kannan is unfair. He had the well dug only for his own use. He spent the money. It was inside his place. No body else neede to use the well. The campus had water in pipes.
He could have dug his own grave also so that nobody could use it except himself
So, you think that if someone is from a so called low caste, he shouldn’t be expelled however low his grades be? Writing articles just for money isn’t nice.
So you think that printing an article from 2016 even when new steps has been taken by ruling government will stimulate some logical response. Kudos to you idiots.
Exactly, reservation is not enough. These students must be consistently supported by giving extra marks in exams. And even if then they don’t make it, they still should not be expelled with the excuse of bad performance. And ofcourse, you do not see and reserved category students at Kota or any general categories student giving exam without coaching.
Bullshit article.
You get admission at the TopUniversity with marks that are just qualifying for the exam and also saying you’re equally abled to a person scoring twice as much marks, that’s retarded.
Useless article with pointless argues. May be this person is sufferering from inferiority complex. where is this discrimination??? Getting seat in prestigious IITs with the help of reservation…,nobody don’t care. Have seen competition levels in general category. Years and money will waste. which one is to blame other students or You…? Here you don’t need to give competition for other students., You should pass for your sake only.
This article has produced factual incorrect data to support argument. Like it say Kota coaching was costing Rs 1 lacs in a month in 2001-02. This figure is incorrect. Even today, any Kota coaching including leaving expenses may cost Rs 50000 to 60000 a month. IIT Roorkee expelled 10-12 student a few years back due to consistent poor performance. IIT Roorkee total yearly intake is 800 and approx 23% SC/ST students comes to 184. If you consider 12 expelled student, it comes to nearly 8%. Where as in article expelled student claimed as 80%. There may ne some isolated incident of harassment of dalit student, but Indian society including higher education institutions are inclusive and tolerant.
The ideas presented by the author are gross exaggerations particularly about IITs. I am a graduate of IIT Roorkee and the conditions are not all that horrific as described. The author seems driven less by facts and more by caste based stories that surface. I personally have many friends who are beneficiaries of reservation and I am sure they would disagree too. The author is also making some completely false claims. First being going to cram schools will guarantee you a seat at IITs, just check the top coaching institutes in Kota and ask about their percentage selection, you’ll figure out. Another thing which is a utterly false is INR 1 lac per month of coaching fee. To the best of my knowledge, a two year coaching in kota would cost around 4-6 lac including residential, food and other expenses currently.
What IITs think is actually correct in their sense, backward people are marginalized because they are educationally backward, instead they should make world class institutions which makes their basics clear and help them develop.
What the hell??
So you want 90 percent reservation???
Already 60 percent seats are reserved which means only 40 percent is available for everyone to compete.
So 90 percent students are general and they compete for only 40 percent seats and even that 40 percent can be taken by sc St and OBC people.
And what do you mean if you go to a coaching institution you will get a seat guaranteed?????
That’s like saying if you can be the president if you study.
It doesn’t matter which intuition you go you still have to work your ass up.
And reservation is bullshit why don’t you attack England??? The Queen is still alive. That’s like punishing Germans becuz Hitler killed people.
Reservation is the only thing which stands in the way if this country’s development.
The pwd cutoff was minus -45 marks what else does this imply?? You can atleast score 0 without coaching don’t tell me you can’t..
Now if a someone becomes a teacher without qualifications becuz if quota what will the students learn?? At least don’t put reservations on something that decides children’s future .
Why don’t you talk about the suicides in Kota
THEY WERE ALL GENERAL !!!
Becuz of this mentality students who have real talent are suffering.
You literally are saying minus –45 and 80 marks are one and same
Useless observations.
Yes this is the only solution reservation for SC/ST and OBC and ‘GANTA’ to general …. History show they were exploited but now today the scenario has changed…just go and do your home work haven’t you seen SC/ST IAS,Rich or Poor general..I think you should support the no reservation and Financial support to all needy …one side we want to called ourselves developed and other side we are asking for reservation by showing that still we are backward…That is should be the point … financial or educational support should be given not the reservation this is not the solution..
Well despite the provisions of reservations upper caste people are eating their share of jobs. Don’t believe me. Just look at the teaching posts occupied by svarnas in the higher institutions. So your arguments of ganta is stupid.