Opinion Rahul Gandhi's call to pass Rohith Vemula Act is welcome but its effectiveness in creating a more equitable social environment will depend on the details

Indian Express

24-04-2025

On January 17, 2016, Rohith Vemula — a scholar who loved the stars and wanted to become a writer like Carl Sagan — died by suicide on the Hyderabad Central University campus. His death stirred up a mass movement that brought into sharp focus the rampant institutionalised casteism within Indian academia. According to the IC3 institute reports, more than 13,000 students die by suicide annually in India. This number, most likely much higher due to under-reporting of such events, is still just the tip of the iceberg.
Suicide is the most extreme step that a student often considers as the only way when all other measures to cope fail. Most of them try to absorb the trauma, resulting in mental health issues, declining confidence and performance, self-harm or dropping out altogether. At the core of this issue lies the attitude of academic administrators and professors who mistake piling on pressure, and often abuse, on students as a praxis of 'rigour'. Mostly, any talk of softness and empathy is dismissed as 'weakness'. Sociologically, this attitude towards learning stems from the tradition of guru-shishya Parampara. In this framework, the 'guru' is all-knowing and is usually never wrong, while the 'shishya' can only learn through 'pariksha' or an ever-intensifying series of challenges and tests. Ostensibly, absorbing such principles, higher education becomes a journey where the students are constantly forced to prove that they are worthy enough for the institutions to teach them.
In a caste-ridden society like India, this is a dangerous framework for higher-education institutions (HEIs). Due to centuries of exclusion, thousands of castes in the country do not have the privilege of intergenerational literacy or formalised learning traditions. Such a society needs an empathetic framework of upskilling and educating its masses. In its absence, structurally, we are bound to end up with a deeply alienating system where most former students remember their learning years as a period of discomfort and trauma, not one of joy and discovery.
Against this backdrop, Rahul Gandhi's request to the chief ministers of the three Congress-ruled states — Telangana, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh — to enact a 'Rohith Vemula Act' aimed at dealing with the caste discrimination in HEIs is a welcome move. While details of the legislation are yet to be clear, it appears each state will have its own version with some common pointers: Marking the denial to admission or amenities to the SC/ST/OBC students or demanding money from them as cognisable offences; provisions for financial compensation in the case of student suicides, etc. While these are well-thought-out provisions, the effectiveness of such a bill in creating a more inclusive and equitable social environment will depend on the details of the legislation. After all, caste discrimination and humiliation are multifaceted and embedded in a variety of social behaviours, rituals and policies. Addressing them requires more than a token law and a compensation promise.
First, Indian HEIs have historically been known for evading accountability and rendering complaint cells impotent by staffing them with pliant personnel and friendly external interlocutors whose primary motivation seems to be safeguarding institutional reputation. The law must be mindful of this and provide for a time-bound, transparent and independent complaint redressal mechanism.
Second, while sensitisation has been mandated on ragging and gender safety, no Indian HEI, in all likelihood, takes similar initiatives to sensitise students on caste. This is an extremely important step as most Indian schools end up incepting students with a deep resentment towards caste-based affirmative action due to differential admission cut-offs for most HEIs. No mandated intervention counters this by explaining affirmative action principles, making a data-driven case for caste diversity and addressing the importance of bringing marginalised caste groups to higher education institutions for national capacity-building.
Third, beyond complaints and sensitisation, the structural composition of caste within academia also needs to be addressed. There is no better buffer against brazen casteism than bringing on board a higher proportion of SC/ST/OBC faculty within the administration. Presently, most public institutions flout reservation mandates in hiring, while private HEIs have inexplicably been given a free rein in this regard. As a result, the administrative bodies responsible for policy in these institutions are thoroughly dominated by 'upper castes'. If the Rohith Vemula Act is to make a real difference, it needs to address this caste imbalance.
Lastly, the act would also need to outline clear punitive measures against institutions that violate the mandates. These measures must be severe, such as revocation of recognition and rankings, heavy fines and criminal charges against the administrations, with a commitment from the state to enforce the same. Without this, the inactivity of these administrations on caste matters will not be shaken.