The following is a statement by the Student body of the Department of Humanities and Social Science. The following statement was democratically passed with the required quorum.
This statement is being released by the MA students of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences regarding the recent incidents that have happened concerning Prof Vipin P Veetil, former Professor of Economics in our department, who had filed a complaint on the grounds of caste discrimination against the department. Having faced harassment following this, he resigned from the department in the beginning of January.
Dr Vipin P Veetil had been a faculty member of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences since 2019. In this time, he has taught several students from the department and the institute. Students who have taken his courses have found them to be engaging and academically rigorous, and he has supported students outside the classroom as well in various ways. It thus came as a shock to the students taking his courses this semester that he was disallowed from completing them before his period of due notice, 2 months after he tendered his resignation. The department did not give a clear answer to the students regarding why Dr Vipin would not be taking the courses either, despite Dr Vipin himself being open about the situation and expressing willingness to continue teaching the courses.
From the information available to us, the investigation by the Fact Finding Committee seems to have been marred by a lack of basic understanding of the systemic nature of caste-based discrimination and a degree of carelessness that reeks of complicity. Caste is not an outdated and distant social phenomenon to be studied only within the confines of the classroom; it exists in concrete and varied forms both within institutions as well as in society at large. As students of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, we believe that the lack of transparency regarding the circumstances behind Dr Vipin’s resignation and the investigation itself are troubling and hypocritical. There has been little to no communication from the department to the student body regarding what actually transpired, and we expect better from a department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Sweeping the issue under the carpet worsens the dignity and trust in the Institute rather than solving the problem. It would be in the best interest of students and faculty as well as the Institute to address the issue with the seriousness it merits rather than the perfunctory inquiry that was conducted by those with power.
STATEMENT
We, the department student body, thus call upon the department and the institute to facilitate an independent investigation by a committee from the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), as Dr Vipin has requested, as well as a greater degree of transparency regarding the incident and steps taken to remedy it. We also believe that Dr. Veetil’s complaint against the sabotage of the OBC/SC/ST special recruitment drive is an extremely pressing matter that should be investigated by the competent authorities at the earliest.
In addition to this, a larger issue that we find troubling in an institute as established as IIT Madras is the lack of a caste and minorities-related grievance cell in the institute. A faculty advisor for weaker sections exists in the institute, but their presence is very little-advertised and unlike a body like Complaints Committee Against Sexual Harassment (CCASH), an established protection body for marginalized communities does not exist in the institute currently. Procedures that can be followed for registering complaints about caste discrimination are practically nonexistent in the institute today. A Grievance Committee exists in the institute; however, it deals primarily with academic issues. The need for a redressal body for instances of caste-based harassment and discrimination is sorely felt, not only with regard to this particular incident, but also for other instances of caste discrimination that occur in the institute. The department student body thus also calls for the formation of such a redressal body, headed by senior faculty from marginalized communities, which would be able to treat such incidents with the seriousness it deserves. We believe that such measures are imperative in order to ensure that the rights of students, faculty and staff members from marginalized communities are respected and safeguarded in the future.
Article 19 