IIT-Madras professor resigns, alleges caste discrimination

Ground Report | New Delhi: IIT-Madras professor resigns; An assistant professor at IIT-Madras resigned from his post, saying he was subjected to caste discrimination here. He made caste discrimination the main reason for leaving the institute. 

IIT-Madras professor resigns

The economics professor said in a purported e-mail, "One of the primary reasons for leaving the institute is the caste discrimination that I have faced in the HSS (Humanities and Social Sciences) department. I joined in March 2019."

In his resignation letter, an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of IIT has written that he had to face caste discrimination since he started his job in March 2019. 

The mail is expected to take appropriate steps to improve the situation. Along with this, demand has been made to set up a committee to look into the experiences of teachers belonging to Scheduled Castes and Backward Castes.

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The letter also alleges widespread caste discrimination in the institute. “One of the curious phenomena I have observed at the Institute that Bayesians preceded many is that caste discrimination is a rare phenomenon. My own experience and interactions with members of the SC and OBC communities show that Bayesian pre- far from the truth," it further reads,

To handle the situation, Veitil encourages people to step in and complain in their mail to the complaints committee at the institution and even with the courts. He has also suggested that the institute constitute a committee to study the experience of SC and OBC faculty members. He has also said that such a committee should also have SC/ST commission, OBC commission, and psychologists.

No comment from institute

The institute has no comment on this email. Whenever any complaint is received by the institute from staff and students, it takes immediate action through the established process of redressal of complaints, the institute said. (IIT-Madras professor resigns)

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The widely circulated e-mail on social media was also retweeted by the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, an initiative of IIT-M students. The mail said that the institute should constitute a panel to study the experiences of SC and OBC faculty members.

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