Caste Based Apartheid In The Indian Institute Of Technology, Madras,

Presented At: United Nations World Conference Against Racism
Social Justice Retrieval Forum

India has been practicing Caste System for the last 2000 years. Hindu India is divided into 4 castes. Brahmins are the highest caste, they are the priestly caste. Then come the Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas
(traders), and lastly Sudras (menials). A fifth group the untouchables (numbering 200 million) lie outside the caste system.

This division of Hindu society was based on Caste laws first set out in the Manu Smriti (The Laws of Manu), dating to the third century. Men are supposed to be punished for sins of past lives by being consigned in low castes.

The untouchables were not allowed to enter the temples. Their touch was
considered a sin and it made a caste Hindu impure. Shockingly, even
their shadows were considered impure. This discrimination unlike Apartheid
is not based on the colour of skin or the race, but on the caste into
which one is born. Untouchables are treated inhumanly worse than
animals.

Brahmins, (priestly class) are considered supreme and education became
their property. The Sudras and untouchables were denied education. If a
Sudra happened to listen to Hindu treatises cruel, inhuman punishments
like pouring molten tin in the ear were meted out.

Because of centuries of persecution of the untouchables under Brahmin
tyranny, when India attained independence (1947), the father of Indian
Constitution, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, made a provision for reservation in
all Governmental positions and educational institutes to ensure that
Untouchables and tribes (also known as Scheduled Castes /Scheduled Tribes)
were adequately represented.

The 'untouchables' prefer to be known as "Dalit" for it means broken,
crushed, destroyed and it represents the position of untouchables and
tribes. We use the word Dalit in the leaflet.

As per the constitutional right of reservation, Dalits are entitled to
obtain 22.5% of the vacancies in State postings & admissions to courses
of study. This percentage tallies with percentage of Dalits in the
Indian population.

Brahmins have monopolized entire educational sector in India. The
Brahmin caste forms only 3% of India's population but it occupies all top
scholastic & legislative positions. They deny the Dalits even basic
Education.

In this pamphlet, we bring out the plights of the Dalits and the
various harassments they face in one of the premier educational institute in
India- The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were established in 1959 for
the purpose of providing higher technological education of world
standards to the poor downtrodden students, who couldn't afford to study
abroad. The institutes are in the cities of Bombay, Delhi, Gawhati, Kanpur,
Kharaghpur, and Madras.

Indian Institutes of Technology are declared under the Parliament of
India (Act 59 of 1961) as Institutes of National Importance. These six
institutes totally get an annual grant of Rs.9000 crores from the Indian
Government (approx. US $ 2000 million), yet sadly these funds are not
utilized for the benefit of the downtrodden.

Even these top institutes have not been spared from the disaster of the
caste system. The institute at present does not implement the
reservation policy for the Dalits. The reason for this vindictive flouting of
social justice norms is the Brahmin domination in the administration and
teaching at the institute.

In the IIT Madras, out of 427 faculty members (teaching staff) only 2
faculty members belong to the Dalit community. Both these members only
belong to the lower cadre. Also, this means that instead of 22.5% of
positions being allotted to Dalits only 0.4% reservation is being given.
If the proper process of reservation is followed there should be 96
Dalit faculty members.

Also, although Muslims form about 15% of the Indian population there is
not a single Muslim faculty member in the Institute. There are only a
handful of Christian faculty members.

Around 400 faculty members belong to the Brahmin community. This means
that the Brahmins occupy 93% of the teaching community in the institute
although their percentage in population is only 3%. About 15 faculty
members belong to other Hindu castes apart from Dalits or Brahmins.

The selection to the B.Tech degree is based on an All India Level
Entrance test called the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination), which is held
commonly for the 6 IITs.

Discrimination against the Dalits begins at the stage of applying
itself. The Dalit students are issued coloured application forms whereas
other students are always given white coloured forms. This year the
application forms given to Dalit students were pink in color and last year it
was green. This is a shocking case of modern day apartheid, and a
greater shock is that the answer sheets of Dalit students are also coloured.

This year (2001), 537 students were selected to join B.Tech in IIT
Madras. Of these 503 students belong to the general category and only 34
students belong to the Dalit community. Instead of 22.5% reservation
eligible to Dalits only 6.3% is being filled up. If reservation is properly
implemented there should be 121 Dalit students in B.Tech course.

Only a handful of the Dalit students who clear the Joint Entrance Exam
are allowed to join the Institute and some of them are forced to take a
one year training called Preparatory Course and they are taught school
portions once more. The institute then conducts internal exams, and a
few of them are selected to join the institute & are made a year junior
to upper caste classmates Conducting of Preparatory Courses only to
Dalit students is violative of Right to Equality and is a highly
discriminatory practice.

Dalit students selected for the B.Tech are continuously harassed & they
are wantonly failed in courses by Brahmin faculty. This is facilitated
because student's caste is mentioned in the roll call given to Faculty
members. Very few Dalit students are allowed to complete their B.Tech
degree and many discontinue. Dalit students are entirely denied
admissions to other programs like M.Tech, M.S. & Ph.D.

In the Department of Mathematics, IIT Madras, till 1998 no Dalit
student had been selected for the Ph.D. program. Despite appearing twice for
interview a Dalit student Mr.S.R.Kannan was not selected. For selecting
him Dr. (Mrs.) Vasantha Kandasamy, an Associate Professor of the
Department had to appeal to various social justice forums to see that he was
selected. Till date he is yet to be allotted an office room in the
Mathematics Department.

Dr. Vasantha fought for the Dalit scholar, so she is harassed in all
possible ways. She was selected as Associate Professor in 1996, but she
is denied her right salary. Despite being a highly qualified
mathematician having published over 350 research papers in journals & conferences,
she is discriminated because she is espousing the cause of Dalit
education. She has guided 11 students for their doctoral program – Ph.D.

In an effort to put a stop-gap to the Dalit movement the IIT Madras
administration is victimizing Dr. Vasantha. She has sent over 62 letters
of appeal to the Indian Government to do justice but no action has been
taken. So, Dr. Vasantha will be directly approaching the United Nations
Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

Over 200 cases are pending in Honorable Courts in Madras against
Director, IIT Madras, for the past five years & some of these cases are
regarding denial of reservation for Dalits.

Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam and Dalit Panthers of India along
with 21 other Dalit organizations have formed a Social Justice Retrieval
Forum and are fighting for the rights of Dalits and reservation policy
in Indian Institute of Technology IIT, Madras.

We pray to the International Forum of WCAR to support the cause of
Dalit Education in IITs, and recruitment of Dalit Teachers in IITs and
include the same in your agenda.