‘Wait for SIT report’: IIT Bombay says will continue to take steps against discrimination

NEW DELHI: After facing a barrage of criticism, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay) in a statement said that the SC, ST cell has conducted two informal surveys to explore the types of caste discrimination students may be facing. Based on the inputs received, IITB has also created a caste sensitization course, which is under development for several months.

“For specific issues related to the case of Darshan Solanki, we request everyone to wait for the SIT report and avoid unnecessary speculation,” IIT Bombay said.

The institute informed that IIT-B SC, ST cell used the inputs of surveys to take up several tasks to make the campus more inclusive. “These included mentorship programmes, creation of various channels to provide help in scholarship-related matters, financial matters as well as public talks by well-known experts to create awareness,” it said.

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“ IIT Bombay remains committed to ensuring that our students do not face any form of discrimination. It has already taken several steps, and will continue to take more steps in this direction,” the statement read.

As the surveys were voluntary, only a fraction of the students participated. “Although the results are very useful qualitatively, they are harder to interpret quantitatively. Thus, while the SC/ST student cell took up several steps to address issues identified in the surveys, the specific survey results were not shared earlier with the IIT senior administration,” it said.

“It may also be noted that the SC/ST student cell surveys were taken before the current first-year batch entered IIT, and thus provide no specific inputs on the experiences of the current 1st year batch,” IIT B added.