IIT Bombay students protesting for the last 15 days over the September 18 death of a second-year B.Tech student began a hunger strike at Justice Corner on Friday, demanding action from the institute and accountability from its administration. The hunger strike comes days after the student’s parents, who are also on hunger strike at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan, were denied police permission to continue their protest on weekends.
The students continued their protest through the night and held discussions among themselves on issues affecting student life on campus and presented an 18-point charter of demands to the administration, including an independent, transparent investigation into the student’s death, changes to the inquiry committee appointed by the institute, the resignation of IIT-B director Shireesh Kedare, and the suspension of professor Suryanarayana Doolla, who has been accused of caste-based discrimination by the deceased student’s parents. During the 14 days of protest, students have also held discussions on mental health, student-teacher relationships, placement pressure, evaluation systems and dealing with loss on campus. They also demanded that the institute withdraw its statement about the student’s conduct during the examination and that the inquiry be conducted by independent members, including SC/ST students, faculty members and external experts.
They said the protest has provided a space for students from different batches, departments and programmes to discuss issues affecting them. In a letter submitted to the IIT-B administration, the organisations said the institute should issue an apology to the parents and the SC/ST community over its initial statement following the student’s death, which included unverified allegations.
