Mumbai: On a day when the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay's anti-discriminatory guidelines surfaced, posters denoting certain spaces of the prestigious campus as 'vegetarian only' reared their head triggering a debate over caste discrimination at the prestigious institute. The administration at IIT Bombay Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT B) has issued guidelines asking students to desist from asking fellow students for their ranks that could potentially reveal their caste and lead to caste based discrimination.
The guidelines encouraged the students to bond over commonalities including sports, music and movies. The anti-discrimination guidelines come months after allegations of caste discrimination at the premiere institute surfaced following the death of Darshan Solanki, a first-year BTech (Chemical) student. However, the guidelines were overshadowed by 'vegetarian only' posters on the IIT Bombay campus.
The posters being widely shared on the Internet read, “Vegetarian only are allowed to sit here” thereby triggering a fierce debate over the choice of food and caste based discrimination at the premier institute. It is learnt that the posters have surfaced in the eating area of hostel 12 of IIT Bombay leaving many students miffed.
Also read: Bond over sports and movies, don't seek info about JEE(A) ranks: IIT B issues anti-discrimination guidelines for students
The Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), a students' body at the IIT Bombay took exception at the controversial posters saying that the posters had been issued in violation of the institute policy. In an elaborate post, the APPSC said, “Even though RTIs and mails for hostel GSec shows that there is no institute policy for food segregation, some individuals have taken it upon themselves to designate certain mess areas as "Vegetarians Only" and forcing other students to leave that area”.
The APPSC also posted a screengrab of an email sent by the general secretary of the hostel 12 dated 15 July. The purported mail clarified that while there was a separate counter for the distribution of vegetarian food, there was no separate seating designated for eating it. A student targeted vegetarians over the veg -only posters at the IIT Bombay.
Reacting to the posters, Jayati, a netizen wrote, “If they have so much problem sitting with non-vegetarians, they can easily take food from mess back to their rooms in a container or something. But nope. From hostel mess to entire apartment blocks, everything is their private property”. “Segregation based on food is just another way of segregating people based on caste,” another netizen wrote.
“Reserving sitting spaces based on food preferences is nonsense. Sad that Students of a Premier Institute are Indulging in this Behavior,” Sunny Sinha, another netizen wrote.
