Judicial Commission To Probe HCU Suicide

The Fact-Finding Committee constituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the wake of the chain of unfortunate events at the University Of Hyderabad (Hyderabad Central University) resulting in and following Ph. D. student Rohith Vemula's death, submitted its report to the ministry on Friday.

Based on its observations and findings, the ministry has decided to constitute a judicial commission to review the entire episode and its history, and to establish the facts and correctives in the context of the university.

The judicial commission will submit its report within 3 months.

In order to address the issues faced by students from disadvantaged social, economic and educational backgrounds in higher educational institutions (HEIs) comprehensively and to prevent such unfortunate incidents in future, the ministry has decided on the following course of action:

1. A programme will be launched to sensitize academic administrators about understanding and handling the problems faced by socially, educationally and economically disadvantaged students. All wardens, administrative staff and registrars will be compulsorily put through this orientation programme. A special module will be prepared for this orientation.

2. A special mechanism will be set up at the ministry for receiving and taking expeditious action on the grievances from these students.

3. All VCs and senior administrators will be sensitized to reach out to socially, economically and educationally disadvantaged students. There should be zero tolerance for any acts of discrimination on campus. A special charter will be issued to all the HEIs in this regard.

4. The Peer-group Assisted Learning (PAL) of IIT Gandhinagar will be extended to all the HEIs, under which mentors will be arranged for the socially, economically and educationally disadvantaged students not only to assist them in education, but also to support them with regards to the challenges being faced by them within their institutions.

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani today also spoke to the mother of Rohith Vemula, the late young research scholar, and extended her condolences.