The Union government told the Supreme Court that new regulations will empower the UGC to de-recognize higher education institutions that discriminate, especially based on religion or caste. The court was hearing a petition by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, who died by suicide. Photo from last year shows University of Hyderabad students arrive to demand justice for Rohith Vemula. | Photo: NAGARA GOPAL / The Hindu
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has customarily unveiled the ‘Draft University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2025’ for public consultation at the instance of the Supreme Court’s direction regarding the case of Rohit Vemula and Payal Tadvi. This regulation purports to be a saviour in curbing discrimination based on religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth and to promote equity within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
It is yet another in a series of regulations being promulgated by the UGC in its race to implement the National Education Policy 2020. The draft regulation aims “to eradicate discrimination only on the basis of religion, race, sex, place of birth, or caste, particularly against members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, socially and educationally backward classes, and economically weaker sections, or any of them, and to promote full equity and inclusion among the stakeholders in higher education institutions.”
The regulation’s core mandate is to establish the Equality Opportunity Centre, comprised of an ex-officio Chairperson, who is typically the Vice-Chancellor or Principal of the HEI, and nine other members, both internal and external. Of these ten individuals, the regulation prescribes only one member each from the SC and ST categories. The regulation also mandates that the HEIs constitute subordinate bodies like ‘Equity Squads’ and designate at least one stakeholder in each of its units and departments as an ‘Equity Ambassador.’
All indications suggest that this is yet another in a series of regulations like those in the past meant to address issues related to social justice, grievances, discrimination, and equal opportunities for students from socially and educationally disadvantaged communities. It is no different from others in this series, which contain routine nominal measures. The Equal Opportunity Cell of the 2012 Regulations, the Students’ Grievance Redressal Committee (SGRC) of the UGC 2023 Regulations, and the Special Cell for SC and ST are a few examples of such measures.
The mandates of this 2025 Regulation are simply limited to routine nominal facilitating actions such as sensitizing posters, awareness campaigns, disciplinary or penal proceedings, and propaganda or slogan-making efforts involving squads and ambassadors, as well as Standard Operating Procedures similar to those in past regulations. When those past regulations, which bear similar features, have failed to deliver the intended results, the question arises: how does the UGC expect this one to succeed? This raises concerns about the UGC’s consistently lackadaisical approach to social justice and equity in education.
What data says
In its submission to the top court, the UGC claimed that “3,067 Equal Opportunity Cells and 3,273 SC/ST Cells had been set up so far, and that the total number of caste discrimination complaints received by these Cells was 1,503, out of which 1,426 complaints had been resolved.” Are we expected to believe that incidents of discrimination are truly confined to this meager figure when 93 lakh SC/ST students study among the caste-conscious 164 crore OBC students and the majority 1.75 crore FC students in over 1,200 universities and 58,000 colleges (AISHE 2021-22) in the country?
This figure proves beyond doubt how the Equal Opportunity Cells, mandated by the 2012 Regulation, have utterly failed to ensure equity and prevent caste-based discrimination. During the same period, the reported plights and conditions of both students and faculty members belonging to SC/ST and OBC communities within HEIs in the country provide compelling evidence that neither the UGC nor the Ministry of Education had given due attention or constructive solutions in terms of serious laws, legislation, and regulations to end this dehumanising social menace once and for all.
Discrimination, insults, humiliation, and violence faced by students from the lowest social order are on the rise, as evidenced by statistics and lived experiences. The widespread prevalence of caste hierarchies in top institutions of higher learning has made the educational ecosystem unbearable and highly hostile to students from lower social orders. Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi are merely symbols of the smoldering embers that may well soon burst into a raging fire, threatening to raze the entire education system in the near future.
According to the data shared by the Union Minister for Education, Subhas Sarkar, in 2023 in the Rajya Sabha, 19,000 SC, ST, and OBC students dropped out of centrally funded institutions, including Central Universities, IITs, and IIMs during the period from 2018 to 2023. Of these, 4,444 dropped out from IITs. During the same period, 61 students from disadvantaged communities committed suicide in IITs, NITs, and IIMs. During the hearing in the apex court, the government informed the bench that 115 suicides had occurred in Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) between 2022 and 2024.
Not only should the ruling establishment at the center, but the entire society should also be ashamed of the continuing challenges to human dignity in the name of education. Several reports and research studies have revealed that education in India is reproducing social inequality. The interesting aspect of this episode is that only after the advent of the 2012 regulation for equity did the aforementioned conditions see an upward trend. How will another regulation with similar features effectively redress the issue?
(We welcome your suggestions and feedback regarding Education. You can email us at education@thehindu.co.in)
Prof. Jawahar Nesan was until recently the Vice Chancellor of JSS Science & Technology University, Mysuru (a Karnataka Govt aided university), and previously the Vice Chancellor of Saveetha University at Chennai.
Published – March 13, 2025 09:00 pm IST
