‘What’s your JEE score?’: Why IIT-Bombay doesn’t want students asking this question

It is one of India’s premier engineering institutions. And it’s haunted by the age-old problem of casteism. Caste often dominates interactions between students and overshadows the lives of many from reserved categories, affecting their self-esteem and grades at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B). “What’s your JEE score?” It’s a question that new entrants often ask each other. But many students, who come through reservation, consider this seemingly harmless query as an inquiry about their caste. IIT-B’s anti-discrimination guidelines To make the college inclusive, IIT-Bombay has instructed its students to avoid asking each other about their JEE (advanced) ranks or GATE scores or any other information that could reveal their caste. As a new batch of students joins the campus, the institute has released a set of “anti-discrimination guidelines”. Asking fellow students about their rank “could appear like an attempt to find the caste and may set the stage for discrimination”, it warns. The new set of instructions comes after the death by suicide of first-year student, Darshan Solanki, on the IIT-Bombay campus. His family alleged that a college mate had reduced interaction with Darshan after learning about his JEE rank, which bogged him down. The notification of anti-discrimination guidelines is pasted at different locations on the campus and even circulated among students. “While the student asking the question may feel it is innocent and it may be driven purely by curiosity, asking the question can often have an adverse impact on the other student,” it states. [caption id=“attachment_12937642” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] IIT-Bombay has said it wants to make the campus more inclusive and curb all discrimination based on caste and socio-economic background of students. File photo/PTI[/caption] According to the guidelines, the institute considers it inappropriate to ask fellow students about their birth or admission category, as this could lead to conscious or unconscious bias. The guidelines urge students to mingle with each other irrespective of their caste, religion, or socioeconomic background. They are encouraged to interact over commonalities like the field of study, department, sports, music, movies, and other hobbies. Students are also prohibited from sending abusive, casteist or sexist messages or jokes, according to a report by The Times of India (ToI). They have been instructed not to send messages that exhibit bigotry based on religion or sexual orientation or those that can be construed as harassment or bullying and posting them on WhatsApp, Facebook or any other social media. Authorities at IIT-Bombay have warned students of severe punishment if rules are violated, adding that politeness and sensitivity towards the feeling of their college mates are expected from all. However, it does not specify what is the punishment. The guidelines also mention that the institute implements the reservation policy under the Constitution and strives to provide equal opportunities to all students. While guidelines were always communicated orally during orientation sessions for new entrants, this is the first time IIT-Bombay has officially communicated what is considered discrimination on campus, say students. Also read: Do IITs favour Brahmins and perpetuate caste oppression? The suicide of Darshan Solanki Solanki’s death put the spotlight on how caste-based discrimination on IIT campuses. Being questioned on their JEE score was a concern for many students as it indicated that those with not very high scores were admitted through reserved category seats. On 12 February 2023, the 18-year-old Dalit student died after he jumped from the seventh floor of a hostel building allegedly because he faced caste discrimination. A first-year BTech (chemical) student, Darshan had enrolled in IIT-Bombay only three months earlier. When he went home a month before his death, he reportedly told his family that his classmates were hostile towards him because he belonged to the Scheduled Caste community. He said that the behaviour of his friends changed after they learnt about Darshan’s caste and they became “envious” of him as he was studying for free, reports The Indian Express. [caption id=“attachment_12937672” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Darshan Solanki, a student at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, died by suicide in February after facing alleged caste-based discrimination. Image courtesy: Mission Ambedkar/Twitter[/caption] According to Darshan’s senior and his sister, his roommate had reduced talking to him after knowing his rank. “He was in trouble, and he was being harassed,” Darshan’s mother had said. However, an internal investigation by IIT Bombay ruled out “specific evidence of direct caste-based discrimination”. It pointed out that “deteriorating academic performance” may have been a possible cause for his suicide. Rejecting the internal committee’s findings, Darshan’s father Rameshbhai Solanki wrote to the IIT-Bombay director in March. “The report holds my son responsible for his own death. What kind of institution, which promises to provide a safe and nurturing environment to its students especially from ST/SC background, blames them for the hardships they face?” he wrote. Caste and the campus Caste-based discrimination on IIT campuses is prevalent. Even as the college put out anti-discrimination guidelines, it has been embroiled in another controversy. Students have raised the issue of “food discrimination” after “vegetarians only” posters were put up on the walls of a canteen in one of the hostels. There are no fixed seats for people consuming different categories of food and the institute is unaware about who put up the posters, an official from IIT-B said. However, SC and ST students consider this discrimination. “The need to demarcate separate eating spaces with an idea of purity is to reinforce the superiority of savarnas on campus and deem their eating habits better than those of DBA students,” Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), a student body, at IIT Bombay tweeted.

When the world is constantly seeing the poisons of caste in various aspects of life under the mask of purity, IITs are no exception to this as well. What happens inside @iitbombay mess area? https://t.co/bidhm1jCti

— APPSC IIT Bombay (@AppscIITb) July 29, 2023

In the past, testimonies of students belonging to Dalit and Adivasi communities gathered by the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (SC-ST) student cell, which have not been made public, reveal that the atmosphere on campus is discriminative and hostile, according to a report in The Wire. Since December 2021, IIT-Bombay carried out three surveys and one open house for students from Dalit and Adivasi communities and several instances of discrimination came to the fore. In February last year, the SC-ST student cell questionnaires were sent to more than 2,000 students from the SC ad ST communities. Of the 388 students who responded, 77 said that they faced casteism and indifference from their college mates and faculty members. Some said that they were subject to casteist abuses and were discriminated against in hostels, gymkhanas, canteens and social media spaces, The Wire report says. More than 90 students shared that Savarna students openly shared casteist or anti-reservation jokes, memes, or songs on campus and 40 said that they were taunted with casteist slurs for their appearance or behaviour. According to a student from Jhansi, when “general category” students fumble they are considered clueless but if he fumbles he is branded “unmeritorious”. Another top-ranking student said that he had been told several times that had occupied a general seat, the report says. A second-year student of Electrical Engineering (EE), a reserved category student from Rajasthan, told The Indian Express that the JEE rank is a giveaway if a student is from the general or reserved categories. “If your friends are clearing all courses with ease and you are struggling; it does impact you,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_12937682” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Students protest over alleged suicide of Darshan Solanki at IIT-Bombay. File photo/ANI[/caption] Handling discrimination at IIT The IITs have over the years taken steps to end discrimination. The JEE rank of students is not mentioned in any official documentation or communication. Students from reserved categories have access to grievance redressal and campuses have government-mandated SC/SCT advisors. “Each year, in the orientation session for new Under Graduate (UG) and Post Graduate (PG) entrants, various institute bodies/cells have always emphasised the zero-tolerance policy that IIT Bombay follows towards any form of discrimination. Each hostel and department/centre too have had posters from various cells. This year, the content from various cells, posters/orientations, in the context of anti-discrimination, has been compiled into one poster. This is also being circulated by the institute towards both new and existing students,” IIT-Bombay said in the statement after issuing the anti-discriminatory guidelines. With inputs from agencies