Aarushi Punia It is a common myth perpetrated by upper caste faculty, students, politicians, and media that caste superiority and casteism is exercised amongst uneducated people in the villages, and not amongst the educated in urban and academic spaces. The myth of city colleges and classrooms being caste-free stems from the unidentifiability of the conventional …
Asserting voices of marginalized youth in university space
Sudarshan Kasbe In 2017 two dalit students pursuing higher education committed suicides in premier institutes of India which really shook the nation. These suicides cannot be looked at as independent events but are subject to critical scrutiny by researchers in the wake of the hierarchical structure present in Indian education system. After 73 years of …
What ails Indian Health System?
Dr Jas Simran Singh Kehal The theme of World Health Day 2019 is Universal health coverage: everyone, everywhere. On the 40th anniversary of Alma Ata Declaration, which declared health a human right for all, each United Nations country, including India signed the Astana Declaration in 2018. It endorsed the critical role of primary health …
Institutional Discrimination in Academic Agrahara
Bansidhar Deep “When equality is denied everything is denied. There is no equality in M.Phil/Ph.D admission, there is no equality in viva-voce, there is only denial of equality, denying prof. SukhadeoThorat recommendation, denying students protest places in Ad-block, denying the education of the marginals.”~ Muthukrishnan’s (Rajni Krish) last FB post. Caste system in India …
Caste discrimination in Institutions of Higher Learning: Lessons unlearnt
Wesly Kumar Even though the Indian constitution has many safeguards and provisions, the Dalits are still being discriminated against, and excluded in the universities. The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, prescribe punishments for crimes against Dalits that are much more stringent than corresponding offences under the …
Camouflaged Homicides
Bobby Kunhu “My Birth is My Fatal Accident” Rohith Vemula As a law student I was obsessive about Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code which defines attempt to commit suicide as a crime and prescribes a punishment of up to one year along with fine. I believed that the section was unconstitutional and …
Do ‘The Hindu’ newspaper’s Photo Captions have Caste too?
Anoop Kumar (This article was first published on 27th July, 2009, on Insight blog) Today, while reading one of our national English dailies, The Hindu, I came across a news item regarding the rekindling of the Gujjar agitation in Rajasthan, demanding Scheduled Tribe status. They are holding a three day caste-panchayat to support their …
First Day at the ‘National Tribunal – Violence Against Dalit Women in India’
The National Tribunal – Violence against Dalit Women in India (on 30th September and 1st October, 2013, at the Constitution Club in New Delhi) was conceived in the hope that it would be ‘one small step in the long and arduous journey of Dalit women for reclaiming their rights‘. Asha Kowtal very succinctly expressed the …
From Jind to Delhi via Rohtak: The tortuous path to justice
Sanghapali Aruna Kornana (A report on the events and protests that followed the tragic death of the 20 year old Dalit girl in Jind, Haryana, on 24th August, 2013) What happened? The country witnessed another horrific yet beautifully manipulated story of a young woman who was raped and murdered. The mutilated body of a …