Ghettos
Of A New Kind-
Autonomy And Discrimination
By Subhash Gatade
11 July, 2006
Countercurrents.org
What
ails the AIIMS, the premier medical institute in the country? It is
a question, which has been raising its head since quite sometime. And
the latest episode involving the ‘sacking’ and ‘reinstatement’
(through judicial intervention) of its director Dr Venugopal and the
consequent brouhaha has further vindicated this query.
But it is disturbing to note
that one of the most shocking aspect of the internal developments there
has largely gone unreported in this whole fracas. The heated debate
revolving around ‘autonomy’ of the institution and its alleged
‘intrusion’ has papered over the quantum jump in the discrimination
faced by the reserved category students there. Neither the articulate
sections of our society nor the media has felt bothered over the ‘medieval’
treatment meted out to these hapless students by a motley combination
of upper caste students and faculty members.
A shocking write-up in one
of the leading dailies provides details of the deliberate herding together
of the reserved category students and their ‘victimisation’
by a section of the faculty members.
According to the reporter
‘Parts of AIIMS ( All India Institute of Medical Sciences) hostels
are turning into SC/ST ghettos. Reserved category students said they
were being “hunted out of the remaining rooms” by upper-caste
students and driven to two floors of the hostels.’ (The Telegraph,
5 th July 2006)
As things stand today of
the 250 students at the institute, 55 belong to the SC/ST category.
Out of them 27 students occupy the top floors of Hostel No. 4 and 5
which has a total of 32 rooms. A cursory glance at the hostel records
makes it clear that 22 students out of these 27 have only recently moved
to these floors in the wake of the recent anti-reservation agitation
spearheaded by the upper caste students. A graffiti engraved on one
of the rooms of a SC student in hostel one makes it clear how this transfer
was achieved. It warns the occupant to “get out of this (hostel)
wing”.
The SC/ST students also shared
with the reporter how they are ‘failed’ in the examinations
if they dare complain against the discrimination faced by them. The
sub-dean of the Institute, who himself is a SC, corroborated what was
being shared by the students.
Incidentally a memorandum
submitted by ‘Medicos Forum for Equal Opportunities’ to
the President of India a few days back had expressed similar concern
about the internal situation in the premier school. It may be reminded
that this forum of doctors had supported reservation for OBCs in the
educational institutions and had then launched a novel form of campaign
to further its viewpoint. The representatives of the forum apprised
the President of "the open discrimination against the reserved
category students and doctors being resorted to by certain members of
the faculty and the administrative authorities in different medical
colleges of Delhi including the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences''.
(The Hindu, 28 June 2006). A spokesperson of the forum also alleged
that the incumbent director Dr Venugopal and a section of faculty aided
and abetted the anti-reservation protest supposedly for maintaining
the autonomy of the institute. He also cited instances of the use of
official machinery in the day to day running of the agitation, which
according to him was an ‘open challenge to the constitution of
India’.
It was worth noting that
none of media channels which provided latest update in the ‘sacking’
episode, did not found it even necessary to talk to the reserved category
students. Definitely such an interaction with them would have provided
alternative viewpoints, detailing the way in which ‘autonomy’
unfolds itself upon the most marginalised sections of our society and
there is nobody to complain against it. It would have also exposed the
irresponsible behavior of the medicos which went on a lightening strike
in support of the ‘sacked’ director leading to deaths of
two innocent people.
Ofcourse it cannot be said
that incidents of such nature are an exception among educational institutions
like AIIMS. It was only six year ago that University College of Medical
Sciences, situated in Delhi had metamorphosed into a new theatre of
conflict between the scheduled category students and the non-dalits.
The dalit students studying there had in association with other like-minded
groups had launched a vigorous campaign opposing the humiliation heaped
upon them by the rest of the students. It was heart rending to know
how they were herded together not only on a particular floor in the
hostel, or how a few tables in the mess were kept ‘reserved’
for them.
It is rightly said that the
internal incongruities of an institution become the first casualty,
if its conflict with some outside agency is presented in the simple
binary of ‘us’ versus ‘them. Looking at the charged
atmosphere in AIIMS, where a majority seems to be singing paeans to
the autonomy raga , it appears to be a difficult task that there would
be any takers for the grievances of the reserved category students.