In a country where ‘ Manu ‘ system rules the roost, the incidents of discrimination are not very surprising. In the past couple of years, the number of humiliations of dalits, OBCs, disabled persons have not only increased alarmingly but also have spread to new aras. Whether Rohit Vemula case or disabled wheel – chair bound woman being harassed at airports or Kanche Illiah , a professor of Hyderabad, bein threatened by a particular community, the atmospher of social life is getin worse by the day.
Academic discrimination
At the outset, the lower strata of society are mostly at a ‘ disadvantage’ when compared to higher castes. The ObC/ SC/ST / Disabled have little access to facilities fir standard education. The upper castes, being mostly rich, can afford to good schooling and other educational tools. Most lower castes live in rural areas which lack standard schools and trained teachers. The plight of disabled is even worse. Obstructed by mobility, even middle – class and upper caste persons do not have accessibility to schools providing aids. Thus, the over all scenario is not very great. In this situation, the RTI has exposed major lacunae in education system, especially in premier and reputed institute.
Need of the hour
This reflects the plight of Indian academic society that is brazenly perpetrating casteism, communalism and a lot of nepotism among administrators and staff. Recent guidelines of UGC have not been positive. The intelligenstia of universities like JNU have been protesting against cutting down of scholarship, reducing student intake, especially the lower classes/ castes and disabled and other minority community
Forward
The only way forward is, as Ambedkar strongly advocated, ‘ annihilation of castes’ and desmantling of Manu code. All castes and religious communities must have equal access to education. Since the deprived castes and classes have scant access to facilities, they must be given scope for development like reservations, providing supplementary classes to pick up, aids for disabled and evaluation according to their social and economic conditions in society.
Without proper rational approach, many cases like those exposed in RTI response may come out.