Hyderabad: Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said Saturday that he was disturbed by incidents of students from marginalised communities taking their lives in top institutions, and that there was a pattern in Dalit and Adivasi students dying by suicide that should be questioned.
The CJI said the time had come to have a model of education that had empathy at its core rather than excellence. Talking about the suicides of a Dalit student at IIT Bombay and a tribal student at NLU Odisha, he said: “These numbers are not just statistics. These are stories sometimes of centuries of struggle. I believe that if we wish to address this issue, the first step is to acknowledge and recognise the problem.”
Expressing anguish at the loss of lives of first-generation students who made it to these institutions after centuries of suppression of their communities, the CJI, speaking at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, said: “My heart goes out to the family members of these students. But I also have been wondering where our institutions are going wrong.”
“Sukhadeo Thorat, one of the senior-most educationalists in the country, said that if almost all those who have died by suicide in particular situations are Dalits and Adivasis, then it shows a pattern which we must question,” he said. “When students leave their homes, it becomes the responsibility of educational institutions to establish a bond of institutional friendship with them. Excellence cannot go without empathy,” he stressed.The CJI said there is too much focus on creating “institutions of eminence”, adding, “We need institutions of empathy. I think the issue of discrimination is directly linked with lack of empathy in institutions. Judges cannot shy away from social realities.”
Judges must have dialogue with society: CJI
Hyderabad: CJI D Y Chandrachud said judges in India have a crucial role in having a dialogue with society — inside and outside the courtrooms — to push for social change. “When the Black Lives Matter movement became strong in the US after the murder of George Floyd, all nine judges of the Washington Supreme Court issued a joint statement addressed to the judiciary and legal community on the degradation and devaluation of black lives in the US. In similar ways, as Chief Justice, apart from my core judicial work and administrative duties, my effort is also to throw light on structural issues affecting our society,” the CJI said.
Courtesy : TOI
Note: This news piece was originally published in timesofindia.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights
