Seeking Equity: Caste, Classrooms, and the Limits of Reform

“I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write.”

These words are from the final letter of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, who in January 2016 took his own life.

Vemula was a member of the Ambedkar Students’ Association and one of five Dalit students who protested against their expulsion from university accommodation. In December 2015, the group was accused of attacking a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). That same month, they were evicted from their hostel and their fellowship payments were suspended.

The following month, left penniless and homeless, Rohith died by suicide. Last month, his mother, Radhika Vermula, was seen embracing Rohith’s bust at a remembrance gathering—caressing it, hugging it— tears streaming down her face. 

A decade later, he remains a symbol of resistance against injustice and indignity. “The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust,” Rohith had written in the letter. 

His mother is one among many who have lost their children to systemic caste-based discrimination in educational institutions and the lack of effective redressal mechanisms.

In 2019, Payal Tadvi, an MD student from the Scheduled Tribes faced sustained harassment from three senior residents who allegedly subjected her to casteist abuse and humiliation, including wiping their feet on her mattress.

She was repeatedly demeaned in front of juniors and patients, and barred from assisting in surgeries while juniors were allowed to do so. Despite complaints, no action followed. In May 2019, she was found dead in her room. Police later arrested the three seniors on charges of abetment to suicide, ragging, and offences under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.  

"I used to say I am Dr Payal's mother. But what do I say now?" said her mother Abeda Tadvi.

In August 2019, the two mothers approached the Supreme Court, contending that the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) 2012 anti-discrimination guidelines and Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC) framework were not being effectively implemented. The UGC and the government initially maintained that the existing guidelines were adequate.

Dissatisfied with this response, the Court in July 2023 sought detailed data, including the number of universities that had established EOCs and the number of complaints received and resolved. The findings revealed that in many institutions, EOCs existed largely on paper, were frequently headed by individuals accused of discrimination, and that students feared retaliation, fears that were, in several cases, borne out through victimisation.

This culminated in the 2026 “equity regulations”, notified on January 13, aimed at institutionalising protections against discrimination, particularly caste-based discrimination, mandating equity centres and committees on campuses to handle complaints, with compulsory representation of OBCs, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women, and other groups. 

It was widely seen as a progressive victory, until protests surfaced, with sections of upper-caste society taking to the streets and social media, arguing that the rules were discriminatory against them. The Supreme Court has since put a stay on its ruling, citing that regulations were “vague and could be misused”. 

In Outlook Magazine’s February 21, 2026, issue, titled, Seeking Equity, we take a closer look at the conversation around caste, the role of legislations and verdicts and the claims of misuse by the upper caste members. 

Anand Teltumbde writes about how the opposition to the UGC’s equity rules recycles a familiar narrative of upper-caste victimhood, even as these groups continue to dominate academic and bureaucratic power, echoing past backlash against safeguards like the SC/ST Atrocities Act.

Mrinalini Dhyani delves into reported cases over the past ten years, looking into claims as to whether there is any pattern of rampant misuse of the SC/ST Act in universities or higher education institutions. In the last decade, fewer than half-a-dozen cases from universities were publicly cited as examples of “false” or “motivated” use of the SC/ST Act. In nearly all of them, the courts stepped in early, not to validate misuse claims but to clarify legal thresholds

Mohammad Ali reported from the ground, capturing the voices of university students and examining the UGC regulations and their interplay with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The party’s caste coalition rests on strategic ambiguity: it speaks the language of social justice and OBC empowerment while simultaneously reassuring upper castes that redistribution will not threaten their institutional dominance.”

Surajit Mazumdar underscores India’s unresolved tension between entrenched social hierarchies and constitutional aspirations for equality. The protests reveal how resistance from privileged groups repeatedly reframes anti-discrimination measures.

Kishore Desai states how caste-based protections were designed as corrective justice, but constitutional safeguards have struggled to keep pace with persistent, often subtle, forms of caste discrimination. Higher education, while opening shared spaces of aspiration through affirmative action, has also exposed how caste consciousness continues to shape interactions, making universities sites where old prejudices and modern ideals collide.

Together, these accounts make clear that the debate over equity regulations is not a policy dispute but a reckoning, one that brings into sharp relief the intangible presence of caste and its very tangible effects on everyday existence, where injustice has long been normalised.

Rohith Vermula’s words, written in despair, and Payal Tadvi’s silenced future continue to haunt India’s universities. 

Whether the law can finally move from acknowledgment to accountability remains the unresolved question, but what is no longer deniable is this: equity is not a concession, and justice delayed in classrooms and hostels is justice denied in the republic itself.

Today, the question asked by B.R. Ambedkar rings louder than ever. 

“The question of all questions is this; what is it which helped the slave to overcome the rigorous denial of freedom by law and enabled them to prosper and grow? What is it that destroyed the effect of the freedom which the law gave to the untouchables and sapped his life of all vitality and stunted his growth.”