'Can't Change What Has Happened, But...': IIT-B Mourns Dalit Student's Death Amid Discrimination Charge

The death of an IIT-Bombay Dalit student has earned the institute the anger of students from reserved categories, who alleged a lack of effort to address their distress.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has expressed its condolences following the suicide of Darshan Solanki, a first-year BTech student. The institute has described the 18-year-old Dalit student's death as a "great loss" to both the student's family and the IIT-B community. In response to the tragedy, the institute has constituted a committee to investigate the incident. IIT-B held a condolence meeting where two minutes of silence was observed in memory of Solanki.

Solanki took his own life by jumping from the seventh floor of his hostel building on the Powai Campus on Sunday afternoon, just after finishing his first semester exams for a Chemical Engineering course. Despite efforts from the institute and student mentors to support its students, the tragedy was unable to be prevented.

A student group, the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle-IITB, has accused the institute of discrimination against students from reserved categories, including a lack of effort to address their distress. The institute has acknowledged the allegations and stated that it will work to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

"We mourn the loss of an 18 year old dalit student, Darshan Solanki, who joined @iitbombay 3 months back for his BTech. We must understand that this is not a personal/individualised issue, but an institutional murder. Despite our complaints the institute did not care to make the space inclusive and safe for dalit bahujan adivasi students. First year students face the most harassment in terms of anti reservation sentiments and taunts of non deserving and non- meritorious. There is a lack of representation of faculty and counsellors from the marginalized," the group tweeted on Sunday.

"We deeply mourn the tragic loss of Darshan's life. While we cannot change what has already happened, we will further increase our efforts to prevent such events in the future. We pray that his family gets the strength to bear this loss. The institute is with his family at this difficult time," the IIT-B said in a statement.

(With inputs from PTI.)