BackDalit student’s death: Scheduled Caste Commission presents five demands
Commission chairperson P.L. Punia said he has already met the university administration and the Hyderabad police on the matter
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New Delhi: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes, a central government body, has demanded a high-level probe into allegations that central ministers abetted the suicide of a Hyderabad University student along with financial assistance for his Dalit family.
Commission chairperson P.L. Punia in an interview said he has presented five key demands from the Hyderabad Central University administration and the police commissioner of Hyderabad over the suicide of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula.
The five demands are:
1) Revocation of the suspension of four other Dalit students from all university facilities;
2) Release of Vemula’s scholarship money pending for months and monetary compensation to his family as he was the only earning member in the family;
3) A permanent job to one of his family members in Hyderabad University;
4) A house to the family under the Indira Awaas scheme as the family is poor and don’t have a pucca house;
5) A high-level enquiry into the role of the labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya and five letters written by the human resource development ministry within one month.
Punia said he has already met the university administration and the Hyderabad police on the matter.
“In recent months, there have been several cases of discrimination against Dalit students in several institutions. First the IIT Madras, then Hyderabad University and a fresh incident is coming from Karnataka about a young Dalit student writer being assaulted (for his writings)," Punia said.
In May-June 2015, IIT Madras controversially derecognized a Dalit students’ association—the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle. The suspension was revoked after a political uproar in several parts of India.
Dalit groups and opposition parties allege that Dattatreya’s letter to human resource development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani and the subsequent five letters by the HRD ministry put pressure on the university to take action against a group of Dalit students to which Vemula belonged after it fought with students belonging to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the ruling BJP.
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