IIT Bombay: 'Segregation Much Deeper,' After Caste, Food Choices Divide Mumbai Campus

Mumbai: Allegations of discrimination have hit the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, with posters coming up in the canteen, declaring that only vegetarian students were welcome to occupy a section of the seating area.

This has prompted the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), an informal students’ collective at the institute to raise concerns via a tweet over vegetarian students reportedly being given access to a separate area where non-vegetarians are not permitted.

Student policing at IIT Bombay, claim students

A few students took to Twitter to complain that it was humiliating. “Even though there is no institute policy for food segregation, some individuals have taken it upon themselves to designate certain mess areas as ‘Vegetarians Only’ and force other students to leave that area,” they tweeted.

“It isn’t restricted to only sitting arrangements. The segregation goes back many years and much deeper,” said a Ph.D. student who is also a member of the APPSC.

“There are round plates for vegetarians and rectangular ones for non-vegetarians along with different stoves in the kitchens to cook meat and vegetarian meals on. Fines as high as Rs 50,000 are levied for not adhering to the kitchen stove rules,” said the student.

“In 2017, a few students in Hostel 8 were fined Rs 400 for not following the sitting arrangement,” the student said.

“Veg food was being cooked on the stove reserved for cooking non-veg food in the kitchen,” read a document shared by the Hostel 10 mess council with all mess residents in September last year. This was followed by the imposition of a fine of Rs 50,000 on the caterer.

RTI filed on veg, non veg food at campus

An APPSC member filed an RTI query in November last year, seeking information on how many hostels in IIT Bombay have Jain food spaces in messes where non-vegetarian students are not allowed to consume egg or meat products. The RTI also sought details of the penalties imposed on students who bring non-vegetarian food into the Jain food sections on the messes.

There is no separate space for students to have Jain food in any IIT Bombay hostel, according to the reply to the RTI query.

Despite this, there have been instances of such segregation, according to APPSC. “We have received reports of individuals forcibly designating certain areas of the mess as 'Jain sitting space' and removing individuals who bring non-vegetarian food from those areas,” it said.

“Such behaviour is unacceptable and goes against the values of mutual respect and tolerance that we strive to uphold in our community. No student has the authority to bar another student from entering a space in the mess on the pretext that it is just for members of that community,” said an email dated July 15.

The institute administration, however, has refrained from commenting on the issue. Dean, Student Affairs IIT Bombay, Suryanarayana Doolla, was contacted by The Free Press Journal, multiple times on the matter but no response was received.