Every student’s journey who has ever made it to an IIT is incredibly unique and marked with numerous perils and challenges. Students prepare for years. Some even start taking foundation courses from as early as class seven to persevere through the cutthroat competition. After countless hours of studying, investing lakhs of rupees on coaching institutes, and rising above the crushing weight of people’s expectations, if you manage to crack the second most challenging exam in the country, then by all means, you should be proud of yourself.
You have earned yourself a seat at one of the country’s premier institutes, and you deserve to be among the sharpest and brightest minds. Or wait, do you? You might have earned yourself a seat, but whether you deserve it or not will be debated and eventually determined by your peers. This stark contrast between “earned” and “deserved” has allegedly led to the sad demise of a promising young mind, Darshan Solanki, a first-year B.Tech student at IIT Bombay.
What Happened?
Darshan Solanki was a first-generation Dalit student, and on February 12th, around 1:00 P: M, he died by suicide. He was on a call with his parents less than 45 minutes ago, and according to them, there was nothing “suspicious” regarding his behaviour. Moreover, he did not leave a suicide note behind.
While the police have registered the case as an accidental death, many students at IIT Bombay believe that Solanki’s death is an institutional murder, shedding light on the harassment and alienation that students from marginalized communities are subjected to in these premier institutes.
The sudden and tragic demise has left his father, Rameshbhai, a plumber, and his mother, Tarlikaben, a domestic worker in Maninnagar, Ahmedabad, devasted. They cannot make head to tail how an institute that was supposed to better the lives of their family could snatch away their child so brutally. Solanki’s maternal uncle, who had accompanied their parents after they received the news, says, “He was a role model to not just his family but so many of his other cousins and relatives. Now with his death, how can any parent let their children dream of studying at a premier college like this?”
A similar incident took place in 2014 when a young student named Aniket Ambhore died by suicide on the Bombay campus. A committee was set up to investigate the cause of his death. A year later, the committee submitted its report, acknowledging that his death resulted from a “discriminatory atmosphere” on campus.
Despite the incident, the institute had no evident ambition to curb any such future incidents. In fact, it took them another seven years to even set up an SC-ST Students Cell at the institute, which, after its inception, has been allegedly working without a clear mandate. A young researcher on campus said, “When Darshan (Solanki) ended his life, the SC-ST Students’ Cell should have been the first to be informed. But they discovered his tragic death through a local newspaper. That is the state in which this cell exists.”
Hours after Solanki’s death, the Institute Director Subhasis Chaudhuri sent an email to all the students, which said: “We regret to inform the loss of a first-year student in a tragic incident this afternoon. Powai police is investigating the case. The parents of the student have been informed and they are on their way. We deeply mourn the death of the student and pray that the family gets the strength to bear this loss. May his soul rest in peace.”
This agitated several students who later confronted the director about why Solanki was denied the dignity of being named even after his death. Officials replied by saying that they did not have the required consent from their parents, which, many students think, is a “baseless excuse.”
The Talking Points
1. There have been many accounts where students have mentioned that before they could even introduce themselves with their names, they are asked about their JEE marks, which reveals a lot of information about themselves, like their academic status, social status, etc.
And as soon they discover that you are a “Quota Student”, they start treating you as someone who has earned a seat in IIT only because of their “certificate” and on non-meritorious grounds.
2. As a county, we need to ponder why only death, discrimination, and alienation against marginalized communities that have been ongoing in these “premier institutes” for a long time are put on the pedestal. How many more bright minds are we willing to sacrifice before a concrete solution is taken?
Colleges are supposed to be an all-inclusive spaces where students feel safe. Strong anti-discriminatory policies need to be implemented within campuses that promote communal harmony. Student bodies and cells that actively investigate and take necessary action should be given priority. Casteism is a deep-rooted issue that can only be tackled by education.
3. The death of Solanki also sheds light on the dire mental health crisis prevalent in our country. We are living in 2023, and while making amazing technological breakthroughs in various fields, we are missing out on teaching, especially the youth, how to manage what makes us fundamentally human – emotions. Be it acute academic stress, social anxiety, or any other issue related to mental health is deemed “unimportant.”
In today’s age of social media and cutthroat competition, providing access to proper mental health care is extremely important before it is too late. To tackle this, schools and colleges need counsellors students can go to when they need someone to talk to. We need to make emotional education mandatory, and we need to normalize going to therapy. Finally, we need to end mental health stigma, which is only possible if we openly discuss it. People of all ages and genders can have mental health issues, and there is no SHAME in asking for help. This is a severe ongoing epidemic that will only worsen if we don’t take concrete steps toward it.
Conclusion
If you are a student representing a marginalized community studying at a top institute like an IIT, then no questions asked, you will immediately be labelled as somebody who made it to IIT only because of their “reservation.” This needs to change. As our country’s youth, we owe ourselves to debunk the past beliefs and practices surrounding caste and move beyond the age-old thinking that has been passed down to us. Let Darshan Solanki’s death be a stark reminder to all of us of the condition of our country regarding caste discrimination and mental health. We cannot lose any of our bright young minds. Hence we should start taking concrete steps as soon as possible.