IIT Bombay’s Acknowledgement Towards End of Discrimination

Mumbai, 12th February 2025: The Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Bombay, stopped collecting caste category information in 2024. In response to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) ‘s complaint against caste discrimination filed in November, they acknowledged collecting caste information of students participating in placement cells; however, it ended in 2024.

In November, a complaint was filed by Dheeraj Singh, Founder of Global IIT Alumni Support Group. His complaint was against IIT Bombay for being involved in discriminatory practices with students. This group helps SC/ST students in the placement process. He accused IIT Bombay of being responsible for this partial practice and mandatory rule of filling caste category and category rank in JEE exams while participating in campus placement.

The placement office collected this to provide It to Public Sector Units (PSUs) for recruitment purposes, and after the complaint consideration at NCSC, asked IIT Bombay to submit a report on the action taken on the matter. In the response, they clarified, “In the past, the IIT Bombay Placement office used to collect category information of the students to give it to PSUs when they ask for the category information. The placement office stopped collecting this information from the year 2024 onwards. When PSUs recruit students, their personnel verify the birth category documents for positions reserved for certain birth categories. The placement office is not involved in collecting this data.”

Singh’s letter of accusation against IIT Bombay stated that approximately 300 students faced discrimination during placements, which led to this letter and compelled IIT Bombay to hold accountability for the practices performed. Caste data can be a reason for placement denied, too. He questioned why employers prioritized JEE category ranks from four years prior over students’ academic performance during their degrees, suggesting this reflected a lack of trust in IIT’s educational standards.

Singh had added this was leading to students fearing that private sector companies were weeding them out based on caste-information that they were being forced to disclose by the institutes. End of discrimination is a continued statement by Singh.