IIT-B on Anti-Discrimination Guidelines: Don't Ask About JEE Advanced and GATE Score

The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has cautioned its students that it is "inappropriate" to inquire about other students' JEE Advanced rank, GATE scores, or any other information that may reveal caste or other related aspects, months after it came under scrutiny for alleged caste-based discrimination on campus following the death of a first-year student, Darshan Solanki.

Students are informed about the Anti-Discrimination policies, and they are also posted in various places around campus, particularly around the dormitories. The notification states that "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," adding that the institute wants students to connect with one another regardless of factors like caste, religion, or socioeconomic status.

The institute's anti-discrimination policy notification encourages "introduction, interaction, or bonding of friends happens through commonalities like departments, sports, music, movies, schools, college, village, city, town, hobbies, etc." Additionally, jokes that are abusive, nasty, casteist, sexist, or "exhibit bigotry, e.g. based on religion or sexual orientation, can be construed as harassment or bullying," are prohibited from being forwarded or exchanged by students. Any violations may result in harsh penalties.

Students claim that this is the first time the institution has actually discussed what constitutes discrimination on campus. "Up until now, anti-discrimination awareness has focused more on grievance redressal and who to contact in the event of a complaint regarding various forms of prejudice. But not in the guise of this kind of sensitization," a student remarked, adding that penalties are still not clearly outlined. Another student, however, clarified that not all students received verbal communication of some of the rules during freshmen orientation meetings. Additionally, mentors had previously conveyed this specific urge to avoid rank discussions, but it is now being formalized.

The institute administration, however, clarified: "Various institute bodies/cells have always emphasized the zero-tolerance policy that IIT Bombay adopts towards any type of prejudice in the orientation session for new Undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduate (PG) students each year. Posters from different cells were displayed in every hostel, department, and center. This year, one poster was created using anti-discrimination-related content from multiple cells, posters, and orientations. The institute is also disseminating this to both new and current students.

On February 12, Darshan Solanki, an Ahmedabad native, is said to have leaped to his death from the seventh storey of a dormitory building on the IITB campus.
He told his mother that there was caste-based prejudice on the institute's campus, according to the chargesheet the Mumbai police filed in the case. According to the charge sheet, he also admitted to his mother over the phone that his caste had an impact on how his classmates behaved.