Ridding campuses of caste discrimination

The Supreme Court's directive asking the UGC to notify within six weeks new regulations to fight caste-based discrimination and suicides in higher education institutions (HEIS) has come not a moment too soon.

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Since the tragic suicide of the University of Hyderabad doctoral student Rohith Vemula amid allegations of caste-based bias by university authorities in January 2016, it has been clear that despite their lofty goals, India's premier campuses are riven by persistent discriminatory attitudes that hurt young students from marginalised communities. At a time when people from diverse backgrounds are entering universities in numbers larger than ever before, the bias hurts not just individual but collective and national progress.