On Rohith Vemula’s 9th death anniversary, Bengaluru convention renews call for Rohith Act

A public convention under the banner of ‘People’s Movement for Rohith Act’ to redress caste discrimination faced by Dalit students in university spaces was held in Bangalore on Sunday at St. Joseph’s College of Law, where families and friends of Rohith Vemula were present.

Maktoob Staff

The student organizations led protests against the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula from the University of Hyderabad, vociferously demanding that a Rohith Act be enacted nationally to prevent such deaths in higher educational institutions.

Speaking on the occasion, anti-caste activist and Rohith Vemula’s mother, Radhika Vemula, remembered her son as a calm, gentle, sharp young man, whom she couldn’t imagine would be gone one day. She spoke about how Dalit students are institutionally discriminated against in receiving education and the challenges they have to face to overcome these hurdles to achieve dignity and upward mobility in their lives.

“I express my solidarity with Prof. Gopal Das of IIMB, who is fighting caste discrimination in his institute. It is because of the anti-Dalit people in BJP that I’m still being denied justice. I do not want any other mother to go through the pain I went through, and I will keep continuing to fight for justice and to build anti-caste consciousness,” she said.

Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (Ambedkarvada) leader Mavalli Shankar said that the Union Government is intolerant of people’s struggles demanding basic rights.

“The communal agenda of the BJP government is thwarting scientific temperament. Earlier, the Siddaramaiah government brought in the anti-superstition bill, which was defeated. Dr. Siddalingaiah introduced a bill demanding reservation for children of inter-caste marriages, which did not see the light of day. Government school children are being denied nutritious food cooked by Dalit midday meal workers. If casteism is so rampant in educational spaces, it requires special legislation like the Rohith Act to address these concerns,” he said.

Dr. Dontha Prashanth, an economics professor at Azim Premji University and one of the five Dalit scholars who were boycotted in 2015, said that Rohith Vemula and four others, including Prashanth himself, faced social boycott in their university and were punished thrice for their perceived wrongs.

“We were termed as ‘goons,’ which is a routine form of humiliation used against Dalits across the country and an attack on our self-respect. University spaces systematically create environments that alienate Dalit and Adivasi students, which is why the Rohith Act is essential to question these caste norms,” he said.

At the convention, writer Vikas Mourya presented Government of India data on the death-by-suicide rate of SC/ST students in educational institutions and questioned why no corrective measures are being taken. He emphasized the history of higher education in India, wherein Brahminism and capitalism went hand in hand to alienate and deprive Dalit-Adivasi-Bahujan students of quality education. “It is shameful that even after several decades, education in India is ridden with inequality and discrimination,” he said.

Lekha Adavi of the All India Students Association spoke about the collective efforts of various organizations that have come together to demand the Rohith Act for Karnataka. She said, “The existing legal framework is insufficient to address the covert caste practices and discrimination that occur in universities, which prevent students from getting admission, force them to face everyday discrimination, discontinue education, and take the extreme step of death by suicide.” A legislation must provide a support structure for Dalit and Adivasi students, as well as address the caste discrimination they face, she added.

Guru Basava of Karnataka Vidhyarthi Sangha (KVS) sang songs of resistance, and KP Lakshman, a well-known theatre artist, read out Rohith Vemula’s letter for those present.

Courtesy : Maktoob Media

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