IIT-Madras asst professor resigns citing caste discrimination

The professor, who taught economics at the institute, purportedly wrote an email addressed to his colleagues explaining the reasons behind his decision.
IIT Madras campus gate in Chennai
IIT Madras campus gate in Chennai
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An assistant professor of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras on Thursday resigned from his post alleging caste discrimination at the institute. The professor, who taught economics at the institute, wrote an email addressed to his colleagues in which he wrote that one of the primary reasons for “my leaving the institute is the caste discrimination I have faced at the HSS (Humanities and Social Sciences) department since my joining in March 2019.”

In the mail, the assistant professor Vipil P Veetil stated, “The discrimination came from individuals in position of power irrespective of their claimed political affiliations and gender. There were multiple specific instances of discrimination and I shall be pursuing appropriate actions to address the matter.” TNM has learnt that this is possibly the second email that Vipin has sent. In a first one addressed to the administration, he had suggested that SC/ST and OBC cells should be set up in the institute.

The mail to his colleagues further added, “One of the curious phenomena I have observed here is that the Bayesian prior among many is that caste discrimination is a rare occurrence. My own experience, and conversation with members of SC and OBC communities, suggests that the prior is far from true.” The assistant professor has asked the institute to set up a panel with members from SC/ST communities, OBC Commission and psychologists to study the experiences of the Scheduled Caste and OBC faculty members.

The assistant professor also said in the mail that those who face discrimination may benefit by filing complaints with the grievance committee at the institute and with the courts.

The email was widely circulated on social media and was also shared by the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, an initiative of the IIT-M students. The professor could not be contacted immediately. IIT-Madras has refused to comment.

In a statement, IIT-M said, “The institute has no comments on this email. Any complaint received by the institute from employees and students is attended promptly through the established process of redressing grievances.”

ChintaBAR, an independent student body recognised by IIT-Madras, took to Twitter and wrote, “IITs have been in the news recently for caste discrimination against students and for the persistent violation of reservation norms in PhD admissions and faculty recruitment.” They demanded the setting up of functioning SC/ST and OBC cells in the institute and expanding the scope of the grievance redressal mechanism established at the department level to address issues of discrimination and harassment among others. 

“We have also been demanding proper implementation of reservation norms in admissions of research scholars and faculty recruitment as stipulated by Central Education Institutions Acts 2006 and 2019,” added ChintaBAR. The students’ body also demanded an inquiry into the matter of resignation and the allegations raised by the assistant professor.

With inputs from Nirupa Sampath

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