Research scholar wins battle against caste discrimination, war continues
Deepa P Mohanan of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam in Kerala has won her fight against caste discrimination. The University Vice Chancellor Sabu Thomas has accepted her demands and has also extended her research period till 2024.
Deepa had informed the university that her research guide for her PhD, Dr Nandakumar Kalarikal had made caste-based remarks against her and was obstructing her research by denying her access to the laboratory, chemicals and polymers. She is the only Dalit in her batch.
A microbiologist, Deepa has done her MPhil and would have completed her PhD in 2015, but could not, due to the denial of research facilities she told journalists.
She is doing her research in the International and Inter-University Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IIUCN), headed by Dr Kalarikal.
According to her, she has developed a scaffold and optimised it, but could not finish her PhD “due to Dr Nandakumar Kalarikal”.
The research scholar had filed a complaint against Dr Kalarikal, with the university. A two-member committee comprising N Jayakumar and Indu K S, appointed by the university to look into the complaint, had reported that the complaints by Deepa were true and had recommended that she should be provided with all research facilities.
With no change in the attitude of her guide, Deepa filed a case against him in 2016 under the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. As no action was taken by the police, she tried to meet the Governor, who is the Chancellor of all the universities in the state. However, she was stopped by the police from doing so and was detained for two days.
Claiming that Dr Kalarikal is close to the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) she said that Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the student with of the party paid no heed to her complaints, when she approached it.
With no change in the situation, Deepa sat on an indefinite hunger strike on October 28, 2021. Deepa is anaemic and suffers from ventricular septal defect (VSD).
On October 31, she wrote on her Facebook page, “…So if I lose my life in this hunger strike, the people responsible for this will be Nandkumar Kalarikal, VC Sabu Thomas, research guide Dr Radhakrishnan EK and this government. I understand in this situation why Rohit Vemula killed himself. But I cannot move back from the protest without fighting for justice. I should fight for my people. I should win here for many who lost.”
During her hunger strike several science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) researchers and academics came out in support of Deepa. In a statement they said, “As scientists, administrators, science writers, communicators, journalists, artists and other members of the Indian science ecosystem who are committed to a just and inclusive scientific community, we know that casteism has made the climate of scientific research hostile to Dalit, Adivasi, Bahujan and/or Muslim scientists. In standing with Deepa and condemning the egregious casteism she has faced, we also recognise that our community has failed Dalit and other marginalised scholars in general.
“We have failed to hold individuals and institutions accountable for the casteism deeply entrenched in the Indian scientific establishment, as evident from the severe underrepresentation of Bahujan scholars in academic science at the faculty level and the rampant and unchecked harm committed by oppressor caste faculty members and peers towards the Bahujan scholars who do work in our scientific fields."
The university has no conceded to her demands. Dr Kalarikal has been removed from his post in IIUCN and has Deepa’s research guide. Dr E K Radhakrishnan will be her new guide and Dr Beena Mathew the co-guide.
Following the acceptance of her demands, Deepa has withdrawn her hunger strike.