UGC forms expert panel to revise anti-discrimination guidelines for higher educational institutions

In the last six months, at least half a dozen students from marginalised backgrounds have died of suicide on campuses of IIT-Madras, IIT-Bombay, and IIT-Delhi — the latest one on July 9 on the Delhi campus.

The Union Education Ministry has now constituted an expert committee to revisit its regulations and guidelines on anti-discrimination with respect to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Classes, Persons with Disabilities, and other minorities in higher educational institutions, the government told Parliament on Wednesday. 

Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar said the University Grants Commission (UGC) had taken this step in pursuance of a Supreme Court direction on July 6, where the top court had asked the government to clarify the affirmative steps it had taken to make campuses free of caste discrimination. 

The government told the Upper House on Wednesday that the expert committee had been formed on July 21 and that it would revisit and suggest changes to the existing anti-discrimination guidelines already in force. The Education Ministry said, “The committee will revisit the UGC regulations/schemes concerning the SC/ST/OBC/PwD and minority communities in Higher Educational Institutions [HEIs] and suggest further remedial measures if required to make non-discriminatory environment for SC/ST students in HEIs.”

Notably, the UGC had in 2012 issued the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutes) Regulations, 2012. This covered all forms of discrimination, provided for liaison officers to check reservation fulfilment, and gave mandates for strict grievance redressal cells to address concerns of discrimination. 

However, these guidelines have not been fully implemented in several higher educational institutions, including a lot of the Indian Institutes of Technology. The IIT-Delhi in fact got the mandate for its SC/ST Cell passed only in 2023, providing for a liaison officer and anti-discrimination officers.

In the last six months, at least half a dozen students from marginalised backgrounds have died of suicide on campuses of IIT-Madras, IIT-Bombay, and IIT-Delhi — the latest one on July 9 on the Delhi campus. While official inquiries are yet to establish discrimination as a cause of death in either of these cases, the incidents led to a deluge of students choosing to go public with their experience of caste discrimination. 

On July 6, the Supreme Court was hearing pleas filed by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadavi — two other students who died by suicide, accusing their institutes of enabling casteism. The court had then asked the UGC to detail the steps it had taken to address caste discrimination on campuses.