Two Dalit Students' Suicides in Two Months Highlight 'Institutionalised Discrimination' at IITs
Tarushi Aswani | 8 September 2023 | The Wire
New Delhi: “I can’t speak to you, I am under radar of the faculty after the recent suicide,” said a BTech student from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi when asked about the suicide of the 21-year-old BTech final year student, Anil Kumar, on September 1. The student who refused to speak to The Wire and the student who died by suicide both come from Schedule Caste communities.
Following the suicide, the IIT Delhi administration called an open house meeting on September 3, to address the suicide, and to understand what led to it and see whether the students wanted to flag issues they were facing on campus.
Students have raised a number of issues pertaining to life on campus – and said institutional harassment and discrimination based on caste is a daily phenomenon.