On February 13 2023, an 18 year old Dalit student committed suicide in Mumbai, India. Darshan Solanki, a 1st year BTech student at IIT Bombay jumped to his death from the 7th floor of his hostel. Students at IIT Bombay, who have been closely tracking the circumstances behind
his suicide, and the general alienation that Bahujan students face – more specifically those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes – say that Solanki’s death is an “institutional murder”. One alumna, who knew Solanki even before he joined IIT,has claimed
social media that Solanki had been struggling with caste discrimination. Darshan's family reported that the behaviour of the high-caste hindu students towards him changed as soon as they became aware of his Dalit background, and that they misbehaved with him because of his caste.
In 2014, another young student, Aniket Ambhore, died by suicide on the Bombay campus. Following his death, and subsequent demand from his parents Sanjay and Sunita, a committee was set up to investigate the cause of his death
and remedial measures that need to be implemented to make the campus environment conducive for students. The committee submitted its report in 2015 and acknowledged that his death was an outcome of a “discriminative atmosphere” on campus #DalitLivesMatter #ambedkar
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