Discrimination in the IITs is something to write about

Why in News?

• An 18-year-old Dalit chemical engineering student of IIT Bombay allegedly committed suicide, with his family alleging that he had faced caste discrimination on campus.
• The article highlights that this tragic case should serve as a reminder to pause and reflect on the blind spots of biases to prevent further occurrences like these.
• It also emphasised the necessity to discuss merit alongside any discussion of discrimination at the IITs, as it is the imbedded notion of merit that permits discrimination.

 

Discrimination in the Facade of Merit

• The political philosopher, Michael Sandel, in the book, The Tyranny of Merit, presents a scathing critique of meritocracy as a societal ideal and argues how pride among the elites and a politics of humiliation are natural outcomes of meritocracy.
• This “credentialist prejudice” as noted by Sandel is embodied by some upper-caste students at the IITs, knowingly or unknowingly, as symptom of meritocratic arrogance.
  • This happens, when elites tend to “look down on those who do not rise”.
  • Such a strategy undermines societal acceptance and respect for people who lack the qualifications the system rewards.
  • As a result, various forms of graded inequality and discriminatory assessments of one's alleged talents, are strongly ingrained.

 

On Campus Prejudiced Scenario of IITs

• The ladder of merit: The IIT campuses have well-demarcated zones of hierarchy, the first level of hierarchy being whether you are an undergraduate or a postgraduate student.
  • Intermingling of these two cohorts was an exception than the norm as undergraduates tended to feel superior to postgraduates.
  • For instance, for undergraduates, one’s abilities are immediately imprinted in the minds of everyone based on one’s rank in the entrance exams and one’s branch of studies is also an accident of one’s rank.
  • This then becomes the unique identifier of phantom called merit which then slowly, blurs the lines between being objective and objectifying.
• The role of caste: The branch of studies results in disinterest and disillusionment among some students, but it plays out differently among students across caste.
  • On average, for some upper-caste disinterested students, it becomes an opportunity to explore other facets, which then acts as a justification for bad academic performance in college.
  • These students also possess an implicit confidence that they could be bailed out when needed, owing to their family connections, affluence, cultural capital or social networks which act as cushions for them to take risks in college.
  • However, the students on ‘reservation’, trapped in a branch not of their choice, do not have the luxury to explore or take the same kind of risks as their upper-caste counterparts.
  • An apprehension of being stigmatised for bad academic performance tends to amplify the anxiety and pressure of ‘reserved’ category students.
  • It implies that even the freedom to take chances is implicitly conditioned on one’s rank and caste location and merit fails to account for these starting points, trajectories, prejudices, hardships, etc., that shape us.
  • The argument of using rank or grades as a proxy for merit hence could be drawn corollary to using a person’s body temperature as a sole metric to assess health, ignoring one’s age, gender or other pre-existing health conditions.

 

Steps taken to Reduce Caste-based Discrimination in the IIT Campus

• In June 2022, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) had launched a probe into the lack of mental health support for SC/ST students in IIT-Bombay.
  • Following this, the institute had agreed to hire one SC and one ST counsellor and train existing ones in affirmative counselling for the marginalized.
• The University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations 2012 prescribes for a level playing field for all students in respect of the entitlement and opportunity for enjoyment of all legitimate rights.

 

Way Forward

• The principle of equal opportunity is only a corrective measure of historical injustice and is not a sufficient principle to foster an equitable society devoid of discrimination.
• Being key institutional collaborators, the faculty at the IITs need to re-imagine classrooms as spaces free of meritocratic or discriminatory judgements.
• Building empathy and fostering a culture of equality, dignity, and fraternity cannot happen through short orientation programmes and thus need to be imbibed long-term by built-into the IITs curriculum.
  • For instance, by conversing elite alumni from IITs to reduce biases.

 

Conclusion

• The social well-being depends upon cohesion and solidarity as quoted by British historian, R.H. Tawney.
• Individual happiness does not only require that men should be free to rise to new positions of comfort and distinction, it should also ensure that they should be able to lead a life of dignity and culture, whether they rise or not.
• What is needed is not sympathy or band-aid empathy for the most victimized but a constant engagement with the politics of assertion.

 

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Q1) When was the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) constituted?

NCST was set up in 2004 by inserting Article 338A in the Constitution through the 89th Constitution Amendment Act, 2003.

 

Q2) Which article of the Indian Constitution prohibits discrimination?

Article 15 of the Constitution of India prohibits discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.

 

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Source: The Hindu