IIT Madras professor quits after alleging caste discrimination at the institute

An assistant professor from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras has announced in an e-mail that he is quitting his job due to the discrimination he faced on the basis of caste in the institute. This was confirmed by another professor who is working in the same department.

Claiming that he has faced multiple instances of discrimination, Professor Vipin P Veetil has asked the authorities of IIT Madras to set up a committee with members of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) commission, OBC commission and psychologists to look into the experiences of SC and OBC faculty members of the institute. 

The e-mail stated, “The discrimination came from individuals in position of power irrespective of their claimed political affiliations and gender. There were multiple specific instances of discrimination and I shall be pursuing appropriate actions to address the matter.”

In the e-mail to his colleagues, the professor further added, “One of the curious phenomena I have observed here is that the Bayesian prior among many is that caste discrimination is a rare occurrence. My own experience, and conversation with members of SC and OBC communities, suggests that the prior is far from true.”

In an official statement regarding the issue, IIT Madras said, “The institute has no comments on this email. Any complaint received by the institute from employees and students is attended promptly through the established process of redressing grievances.”