Discrimination In Higher Education: New Trend or Old Wine In New Bottles?

Statistics show that every year circa 200 000 teenagers worldwide commit suicide while about 4 million adolescents attempts it.

According to WHO statistics (2011) in some countries – such as Lithuania – figures are relatively high, with the example of Russia having the highest underage suicide rate in Europe. In other countries, such as Australia, statistics show lower figures. In USA, ranking among the highest in suicide rate worldwide, about 10% of adolescents attempts to suicide

An interesting fact is that about 56% of all female suicides worldwide takes place in China. The meaning of suicide in China differs from other cultures; namely it is perceived as a legitimate means of conveying a message.

Some surveys in South Korea show about 20% of middle and high school students feel tempted to suicide.

In India about 20 students kill themselves every day due to the stress related to exams, wanting to secure seats in prestigious schools, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. South India is considered the world’s suicide capital; especially Kerala, the first fully literate Indian state, has the highest number of suicides committed daily – about 32. According to the Bangalore psychologists from the Indian Southern Medical Centre, “(children)…are under pressure to deliver at school, (…) to appear for competitive examinations, no one gives them any advice about the meaning of life”.

See: http://www.globaleducationmagazine.com/education-suicide/

Since India’s policy-makers love to take decisions based on whatever has hit the news headlines, there have been a number of reactive plans announced already.

This is the shift that needs to happen so we can move on from the current set of affairs where those on the ground end up managing policies which have been devised in response to news headlines instead of news headlines following, analysing and reviewing the progress of policies, irrespective of the short-term blips caused by news headlines.

When we look at this incident, these are the questions that come to mind:

• Is it a case of discrimination against ‘Dalits’, the so-called ‘lower castes’ of India?

• Is it a case of political intolerance? This is more worrying given the suicide happened on a university campus where free speech, discussions, debates and questioning, without bias, should be promoted?

• Is it a case of academic intolerance in universities that try to stifle questions which do not show the ruling government in a good light?

• Is it a case of the excessive nationalism that has pervaded India since the new government came to power in 2014?

• Is it a case of universities, more so publicly funded universities, displaying absolute apathy towards the student community, as is often seen with most state soft-infrastructure service providers, be they healthcare or the police? "A university official denied the allegation [of non-payment of Vemula’s scholarship], blaming the delay on 'paperwork'," reported The Indian Express, in a hard-hitting article "Behind Rohith Vemula’s suicide: How Hyderabad Central University showed him the door".

• Is it a case of 'justice delayed is justice denied' in India? If the judiciary was easily accessible and affordable to India’s masses, could such conflicts be better handled? In my opinion, if the right to justice, as in the fundamental right in the Indian constitution, could be established, such high-handedness by a state power (or, for that matter, by anybody) could be drastically reduced. One recently retired Supreme Court judge of India estimated that it would take 360 years to clear the 33 million pending cases in India’s courts, assuming no new cases come up.

• Is it also the case that the media reacts to stories too late rather than reporting them in a responsible manner, creating noise and asking irrelevant questions rather than following them up at an earlier stage? Why was this story not followed up by any media outlet from August 2015 to the middle of January 2016, until the suicide happened? India probably has more newspapers than the rest of the world (around 70,000 newspapers are published in India) and the highest number of TV news channels (80). The job of the news channels seems to be to regurgitate what other media have said or to spin the story by creating unsubstantiated debate (what veteran journalists call the worst form of being ‘a slave to the loudest and most garish stories’).

• And is it a case of the growing rot in India’s social, political, legal and academic environment?

Unfortunately, there is no point in making the list longer. The answers to all these questions are a firm yes, yes, yes… yes.

The political class loves these simplistic tags: at times it is Dalit discrimination, at times it is discrimination against women, at times the economically weaker sections like farmers, at times children (who are often ignored as they do not have voting rights)… there is no end to it.

As case after case like this happens, our media and government tirelessly come up with knee-jerk ad hoc solutions, with no joined up approach. Such an approach may take a long time to implement, but it would have a long-lasting impact. We need to stop overreacting and start acting.

Unfortunately, as Mark Tully, a veteran BBC journalist, says, there are "No Full Stops in India" (his book title on India, published in 2000). Decades have passed and the situation in India has grown worse since TV news media were less of a menace back in 2000 and the government less likely to govern by managing the news headlines.

Unfortunately, the vice-chancellors and university administrators believe they are accountable to their appointing authorities in New Delhi or to the state, whereas their actual accountability is to students, and beyond students, to society.

Housewives comprise the largest share of suicides (18%); while farmers comprise 11%

Remaining distribution of suicides in India are across professional categories such as private sector employees, self-employed, public sector employees and students. If we study the trends carefully, while most categories show decline over time, private sector employees and students in India are reporting higher suicides over time. With respect to the student community in India, we have found clusters A Reality Check on Suicides in India 12 appearing which are related to examinations and results time. These are covered extensively by local and national news.

The American Association of Suicidology defines suicide cluster (or contagion) as an occurrence in time and space of suicides, greater than the number of suicides which would be expected on the basis of statistical prediction. In this context, an ingredient which appears to facilitate a contagion is the tendency to glorify and sensationalize the deaths resulting in a highly charged emotional atmosphere that promotes further suicidal behavior.

See: http://www.brookings.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Shamika-Paper-2.pdf

While Suicide had increased 170 per cent in the two decades up to 2005 in UK, India reported a figure of 87634879

Suicide rates in India are highest in the 15-29 age group: Report

Overall, the report uses a national government survey of deaths in 2001-03 to estimate 187,000 suicides took place in 2010, making it the cause of 3 per cent of deaths that year.

The WHO reports about 1 million suicides a year, which would be a rate of about 14 per 100,000 in a global population of 7 billion. By comparison, the U.S. had 37,790 suicides in 2010, or a rate of 12.2 per 100,000, while India's rate under the Lancet's projected suicide tally of 187,000 would be near 16 - far higher than earlier reports and estimates of around 10. Among men, 40 per cent of suicides were among people age 15-29. For women, it was nearly 60 per cent.

See: http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/suicide-rates-in-india-are-highest-in-the-15-29-age-group-report-489521

In the wake of a spate of cases of suicide by students in Hyderabad, the Andhra Pradesh High Court, in April 2013, had taken suo motu cognisance of a newspaper report and directed the universities to take measures to address the possible causes. At that time, a group of 29 academicians, in a petition to the court, identified failure, fear of failure, administrative indifference, hostile regulations, insults, social and academic stigmatisation and rejection as some of the reasons for suicide by students from marginalised groups.

See: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/rohith-vemula-suicide-dalit-and-higher-education-discrimination-on-the-campus/article8152216.ece

Modern Secular Institutions embedded in Caste

There is a preconceived notion that our educational institutions are caste neutral. If at all caste is expressed or practiced there in any form, it is treated as existing only because of the insensitivity of certain individuals. In addition, people do not believe that there is such a thing as ‘institutional casteism’.

Marginalized individuals also do not experience the hegemonic control of the knowledge over them as discrimination and a structural problem. For them, caste is experienced as an attitudinal problem – either from department heads, economical institutions or from authorities who represent the institutions.

Yet, within this anonymity, the determinants of caste, religion or region could be ‘read’ through language, lack of or command over English, submissiveness or assertion, articulation capacities, regional or urban nature, mode of dress, complexion etc.

Science and the Notion of Merit

If we measure merit in terms of marks obtained, all the three students got very good marks up to their intermediate courses and began losing marks (their brilliance/merit) after joining for the applied science courses. Does it mean that these students were not capable enough to cope with professional courses or applied science courses? If so, does it also mean that there is something wrong in the environment and attitude (in essence, the structure) of the professional institutions towards Dalit students?

Rejani had failed in nine out of the ten courses in her first semester. Senthil too had to clear one paper from his course work, which was understood as a condition to allot a supervisor for him and continue his research in the Physics department. Ajay had problems to cope in the laboratory. His diary shows that he was scared of one or more faculty members.

In general, these can be read as the inabilities of the students to cope with the applied science department, which needs ‘talent’ and ‘hard work’. Yet, it also carries the hidden meaning of the inability of the high skilled department to generate a friendly atmosphere to a group of people who are yet to be familiar with its language, hierarchy and protocol. Science seems to see itself as privileging logic and would shun perspective.

See: https://thedeathofmeritinindia.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/84/