Annihilating caste in universities & colleges

Tweak the 2012 Promotion of Equity Regulation to expand its jurisdiction, and ensure better enforcement of its existing provisions

- Sukhadeo Thorat

After suicides by some Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students in All Indian Institutes of Medical Sciences, the Union health ministry set up a committee that I led, which brought to light shocking evidence of discrimination faced by the SC/ST students. Given continued cases of suicides in higher educational institutions, Kapil Sibal, the then education minister, asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to frame regulations against such discrimination. The UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations came into existence on December 17, 2012. The Regulations listed close to 20 behaviour patterns often exhibited by upper caste students, teachers, and staff that were discriminatory; these include biased treatment in admissions, evaluation, fellowships, harassment, victimisation, segregation, isolation, exclusion, and ragging, among others. The Equity Regulations also directed universities to set up an Equal Opportunity Cell and appoint an anti-discrimination officer.

A petition was filed by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi before the Supreme Court in 2019, seeking guidelines to prevent caste discrimination in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). The petition pointed out that the 2012 Regulation has, by and large, remained ill-enforced. Thereafter, UGC formed a committee to review the existing regulations in 2023. In response to this, the Supreme Court, in a hearing dated January 3, 2025, directed UGC to notify the new Regulation, and to submit the data from all universities with regard to the setting up of the Equal Opportunity Cells, total complaints received under the 2012 Regulations and action taken before the next hearing on February 28, 2025.