Students at Ashoka University push for a caste census on campus

On November 7, the SJF along with about 200 signatories, sent a letter to Vice Chancellor Somak Raychaudhury stating: “Over the years, we have witnessed various instances where people belonging to marginalized identities have faced discriminatory behaviour and acts. Regrettably, these incidents often go unaccounted for and unaddressed due to the absence of a formal reporting body….”

It further said, “The lack of a formal body in this University to handle issues on discrimination is not only a substantial oversight that encourages openly discriminatory behavior with impunity but is also against the law. In 2012, the UGC issued the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutes) Regulations, 2012 (‘the Regulations’).”

In a response to the letter, Raychaudhury said, “…we are actively working on establishing a robust Student Grievance Redressal Committee (SGRC) in accordance with the latest UGC Regulations of 2023. The SGRC will address a wide spectrum of concerns. In addition, we are also constituting an Equal Opportunities Cell to specifically address cases of discrimination. As with all committees dealing with student complaints at Ashoka, we aim to include elected student representatives in the composition of both these committees.”

He further stated that his office is engaged in drafting the requirements for these committees and “we expect that these committees will be operational early in the next semester” and in the meantime students can write to the nodal officer, who is the registrar of the University.

Speaking to The Indian Express, an SJF member, on the condition of anonymity said, “It has been 11 years since the University has been set up but there is no independent body to specifically counter discrimination….Similar attempts like this one have been made by the Forum in the past 4 years, but even today after the VC responded there is still no clarity on how this body will be formed.”

“We are demanding an anti-discrimination cell, but the admin is still calling it the equal opportunity cell or the SGRC, we are unsure whether we are on the same page. There has been a very vague response from the VC’s side as there have been no specifics on who would be the members of this cell and who would constitute this cell,” the student added.

In addition to this, sharing their view on the upcoming student body election, students said that they have demanded the administration to initiate a caste census to understand whether students from various backgrounds have equal access to opportunity or not.

“The elected student body is only a bridge between the admin and students. We need a proper body to tackle discrimination on campus and we have been demanding it for quite some time now. On Monday, we plan on writing to the VC once more to float an online caste census form,” said another student on the condition of anonymity.