New regulation bans caste discrimination on campuses

Caste discrimination on campuses in India is now punishable, under a new regulation of the University Grants Commission, writes Ritika Chopra for Mail Online India. This is the first time that harassment and victimisation of students from scheduled castes and tribes at the hands of teachers and peers has been clearly defined.

Biased evaluation of examination answer scripts by professors, attributing poor academic performance to a student's social background and harassing students from scheduled castes and tribes by keeping them idle in the laboratory, among other acts of subtle discrimination, are now punishable.

The new rules empower the victim or his or her parents to lodge a complaint irrespective of whether the humiliation took place in or outside the campus. The new regulation – called UGC (Prevention of caste-based discrimination/Harassment Victimisation and Promotion of Equality in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations 2012 – has been approved by the Human Resources Ministry and was to be discussed at the meeting of the state education ministers.
Full report on the Mail Online India site