More Rohith Vemulas in the making? Not even a single Indian university can pass the anti-discrimination test with flying colors

In a shocking turn of events in the Rohith Vemula suicide case and the uproar that has followed, reports suggest that most central universities of the country would probably fail the anti-discrimination test.

To know whether Indian universities actually practice anti-discrimination or not, an assessment was done for all central universities at the conference of central university vice-chancellors. The results, one might ask? Not even a single central university has appointed an ombudsman, with only eight of the 46 central universities having a grievance redressal cell for complaints in this matter.

As per the assessment of the HRD ministry, Indian universities came out to have done extensive violation of regulations, when it comes to the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulation 2012.

These regulations demand that institutions should necessarily set up an equal opportunity cell, appoint anti-discrimination officers, declare mechanism for implementation of the regulations and set up grievance redressal cells.

However, only 10 universities have notified a mechanism for implementation of these regulations, while only 5 have got them working. Equal Opportunities Commission has been set up by only 19 central universities and just 13 of these actually work. An anti-discrimination officer has been appointed only 10 universities, and again, only 5 of them work.

The gross enrolment ratio (GER) for various social groups as per a pan India survey for higher education is all the way more shocking. While the GER for all groups stood at 23.6, it is 18.5 for SCs and 13.3 for STs in 2014-15. Even though these numbers are up from last year’s 17.1for SCs and 11.3 for STs, there is still a long road to achieving success in actual terms.

The HRD ministry has also alerting university administrations about increased diversity in campuses, leading to an amalgamation of different cultures and requirign 'proactive integration' through inclusive structures, empathy, support and effective monitoring.

Talking of Hyderabad Central University, the fact-finding committee has come up with results that say that the essential institutional redressal mechanisms for handling student grievances and problems "seems to be non-functional/defunct and is responsible for enhancing the feeling of deprivation and discrimination among the students from the socially and economically weaker sections".