Page 14 - EW April 2023

Education News

schools. Also, after administrative social justice, in Indira
control of the Municipal Corporation Sawhney vs. Union of
of Delhi passed into AAP’s hands India & Ors (1992), the
following its electoral win in the Supreme Court capped
December 2022 elections, all eyes the reserved quota at 50
are on the AAP government whether percent. And although
it can also improve the nearly 1,650 IIT authorities are strict-
MCD schools which are in a sham- ly prohibited from dis-
bles. closing the caste identi-
According to Francis Joseph, ties and quota details
the well-known Mumbai-based of students on campus,
education policy expert credited with merit students have de-
helping the Brihanmumbai Mu- vised ways and means
nicipal Corporation establish several to discover the caste
schools affiliated with CBSE/ICSE/ backgrounds of quota
Cambridge exam boards, Sisodia’s Protest at IIT-B: hasty investigation charge students during the infa-
resignation is unlikely to upturn mous ‘ragging’ of fresh-
the AAP story in public education offs. ers (now tempered down), to label
reformation. “AAP has changed the Darshan Solanki was admitted the latter and disparage them with
political discourse of the country. under the affirmative action policy. snide hurtful remarks (see www.edu-
From now on, all political parties will Following reports of on-campus dis- cationworld.in/pernicious-casteism.
pay greater attention to school edu- crimination, an internal IIT-B com- in-academia).
cation reform. AAP has shown it’s an mittee investigating Darshan’s death n this particular case, the haste
election winning issue in Delhi, and concluded that there was no specific Iwith which the IIT-B internal in-
recently in Punjab,” says Joseph. evidence of caste-based discrimina- vestigation ruled out the caste angle
Autar Nehru (Delhi) tion against the deceased student. has aroused suspicion against the
The committee’s report attributed management. Last year (2022), the
MAHARASHTRA his suicide to “poor academic perfor- Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle
Caste shadow over mance” and “aloofness” and dismissed (APPSC), a student body at IIT-B, had
allegations of on-campus caste dis-
complained to the National Commis-
IIT-Bombay crimination. It rejected a statement sion for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) that
the head counsellor of the institute’s
of IIT-B’s SC/ST cell to the committee
that Darshan had suffered caste-based Student Wellness Center (SWC) had
he suicide of darshan solanki, discrimination from general (merit) signed a public petition to end caste-
a first year B.Tech student at category students. based reservation i.e, affirmative ac-
Tthe top-ranked Indian Insti- With admission into the coun- tion, and posted it on social media.
tute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B, try’s IITs highly prized – 1.2 million APPSC had highlighted in its com-
estb.1958) on February 12, has cast a school-leavers write the annual IIT- plaint that this incident discouraged
spotlight on the issue of student sui- JEE, of whom 2 percent are admit- quota students from seeking SWC ad-
cides, especially students admitted ted — the generous reserved quota vice. It was also highlighted that none
under the Central government’s res- has always been resented by general of the student counsellors were from
ervations policy. (‘merit’) quota students who argue SC or ST backgrounds and that for
Under this affirmative action poli- that merit, i.e, topping the entrance many backward class students, meet-
cy, 22.5 percent of seats in all 23 IITs exams should be the sole criterion for ing them was causing more harm than
countrywide are reserved for school- admission into the much prized IITs. good.
leavers from the scheduled castes On the other hand, liberals contend Taking cognizance of the APPSC
(SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) that SCs, STs and OBCs have suffered complaint, on February 2, NCST ques-
and another 27 percent for students caste-based alienation and denial of tioned IIT-Bombay as to why a coun-
of OBCs (other backward classes/ education from the upper castes for sellor with “casteist sentiment” was
castes). All aspirants for admission several millennia. Therefore, they de- allowed to continue working with the
are obliged to write the IIT-JEE (joint serve favoured admission. on-campus SWC.
entrance examination) and IIT-Mains This subject has often provoked Even as the education ministry in-
— reportedly the toughest entrance nationwide agitations and numer- formed the Rajya Sabha on March 30
exams worldwide — but affirmative ous court-room battles until in the that “no case of caste discrimination
action quota students have lower cut- interests of balancing merit with and alienation of SC and ST students

14 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2023