A section of students have raised the issue of discrimination at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) after “vegetarians only” posters emerged in the canteen in one of the hostels, a student representative pointed out.
The posters were put up on the walls of the hostel canteen at the institution last week and tweets of the same went viral on social media.
The Ambedkar Periyar Phule study circle, a student collective, took to social media and 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.”
After the poster went viral, the hostel general secretary sent an email to all the students of the university stating, “While there is a counter for Jain distribution in the hostel mess, there is no designated sitting space for those who consume Jain food.”
The hostel general secretary confirmed receiving reports of forceful designation of places as “Jain sitting space” and a refrain for the individuals who bring non-vegetarian food from sitting in those areas.
“Such behaviour is unacceptable and no student has the right to remove another student from any area of the mess on the grounds that it is reserved for a particular community. If any such incident is repeated, we will be forced to take strict action against those involved,” the hostel GS stated in the email.
Earlier this month, the administration of IIT-Bombay issued “Anti-caste discrimination” guidelines following the death of a first-year student, Darshan Solanki, in the institution alleging that he was harassed on the ground of caste discrimination,which led him to commit suicide.