Caste Is Not A Rumour: Reconstitute JNU’s EOO as per Rohith Act!

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Did you know: JNU is the first university in India to establish an Equal Opportunity Office (EOO), much before the recently introduced UGC Equity Regulations 2026 recommended EOOs in every higher education institute to address Caste-based Discrimination.

The EOO’s mandate includes: running support programmes like Remedial Classes to help students from marginalized groups do better at all levels, get funding and resources, offer guidance and counselling, conduct workshops and talks, and set up a Complaint Redressal Mechanism for casteist discrimination.

Most students don’t even know about the EOO. Its website has not been updated since 2014. It is almost dysfunctional today. When we have reported cases of caste-based discrimination in JNU classrooms to the EOO, the body has played the role of ‘mediation’ (improving marks, asking students to ‘forgive’ the offending teacher/student etc.) instead of providing justice through redressal mechanisms.

Rohith Act has been demanded to strengthen institutional mechanisms against Caste-based Discrimination on campus (more on Pg. 3). Reconstituting JNU’s EOO as per Rohith Act will set a strong example for the rest of the country:

EOO should have elected members from student/teachers/staff instead of members nominated by the VC.
EOO should holistically monitor implementation of Reservation policies in JNU admissions, hostels etc., implementation of SC/ST/OBC scholarships, use of funds allotted for hostels, implementation of policy recommendations such as Nafey Committee Report (which recommended reducing Viva Voce weightage in PhD interviews due to evidence of casteism), etc. instead of waiting for discrimination to happen.
EOO should have provisions for ensuring time-bound punishment in case of offences instead of trying to play the role of mediation!

Oppose RSS BJP’s capitulation to the pressure mounted by the caste supremacist mobilisations! Demand strong anti-discrimination mechanisms in universities like the Rohith Act!

University life is a time when we interact with classmates, staff, and teachers from different regions, religions, castes, and genders, who may go on to become friends, colleagues, mentors and lovers. We return home changed by these interactions, questioning practices and ideas we took for granted. In this way, the public university is an agent of social change, and in the process, we also begin to change the communities we belong to. It advances our society by being a space where some pre-existing notions about “others” or “those people” break down, simply by sharing a hostel or PG, eating together at the mess, depending on each other when the scholarship does not come or coordinating a mass bunk together–the daily drudgeries and small happinesses of everyday life.

The “public” character of a university, therefore, lies not merely in opening its doors to all who aspire to higher education, but also in its ability to reconstruct a new kind of public—one capable of imagining life and society beyond the rigid boundaries of caste, class, region, gender, and nation. The success of a university does not lie only in making people skilled or capable of fitting into the existing system, but also in shaping better citizens—individuals who can act as transformative agents for a more just and equitable future.

1. What are the UGC Equity Regulations?

On 13 January, UGC’s Equity Regulations 2026 were released, establishing Equal Opportunity Offices at every higher education institute under UGC and monitoring their effectiveness. This was not a government gift. It was the result of the all-India agitation by lakhs of people demanding a central Rohith Act against caste-based discrimination in higher education, after the ‘institutional murders’ of Rohith Vemula, Dr Anitha, Payal Tadvi and many other Dalit, Adivasi and marginalised caste students who were forced to commit suicide. The Supreme Court directed UGC to release these guidelines in a petition filed by the mothers of two such students.

2. Why did the Supreme Court put a stay order on the Equity Regulations?

Many caste supremacist organisations protested against the UGC, claiming that it was biased against Savarna students. Under pressure, the Supreme Court issued a stay on these regulations on 29 January, It also claimed that the law could be ‘misused’ against so-called upper castes. The RSS B JP government did not file a review petition against this stay order on its own regulations!

3. Can the UGC Regulations be ‘misused’ against Savarana students?

BNS Sections 227-229 already punish ‘perjury’, that is, giving false evidence, by imprisonment up to seven years. Moreover, filing a complaint does not guarantee punishment. The demand to punish ‘misuse’ is clearly aimed at scaring complainants from coming forward to report discrimination, just as women will feel unsafe reporting sexual harassment if they are punished, if there is a lack of evidence to prove a complaint.

The claim of bias against the Savarna castes in higher education lacks evidence. Rather, UGC’s own data reveals a 118.4% increase in incidents of caste-based discrimination faced by SC/ST/OBC students in the last five years. University-specific definitions of discrimination may include unfair grading in interviews, leaving seats vacant, and claiming that candidates were “Not Found Suitable” (NFS); verbal and physical abuse in classrooms; stopping scholarships aimed at marginalised students; and non-utilisation of allotted funds for welfare schemes such as SC/ST hostels, etc. Moreover, against the false claim that ‘Reservations promote caste’, the reality is that the majority of Reserved posts in central universities remain vacant. Data shared in Lok Sabha shows 83% of ST, 80% of OBC, and 64% of SC professor roles remain unfilled in Central Universities, while 65.3% of all higher education institutes are in the private sector and are completely excluded from Reservations.

	Draft Rohith Act	2026 UGC Equity Regulations
Origin	Emerged after the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula, responding to demands for strong, caste-specific university legislation	Dilutes the demand for separate anti-caste legislation by subsuming caste within general “equity”, but not covering other aspects of discrimination anyway
Definition of discrimination	Clearly defines caste-based discrimination across admissions, exams, interviews, evaluation, hostels, and campus life	No clear definitions of discriminatory behaviour
Approach	Holistic: monitoring intake policies, reservation implementation, and SC/ST/OBC welfare schemes	Narrowly administrative; just expands the number of members in the EOO
Complaint Redressal	Time-bound (3 months) inquiry and penalties for those found guilty	Emphasises conciliation, continuing the weak model of earlier EOO frameworks
Composition of EOO	Calls for democratically elected student, faculty, and staff representatives from historically oppressed castes	Makes VC the chairperson and others hand-picked by the admin, while in most cases the perpetrators are powerful people often having influence in political/administrative circles
Representation	Mandates SC/ST/OBC representation among faculty, staff, and elected student members in EOOs	No mandatory representation
Institutional coverage	Envisioned as university-specific and comprehensive	Excludes premier institutions like IITs, IIMs, and NLUs without any reason
Critique	Treats caste discrimination as systemic and historically entrenched in higher education in India	Treats caste discrimination as an exception to equality, despite evidence that exclusion has been the norm

Demand for the Rohith Act amid rising Manuvadi attacks

Crimes recorded against Dalits and Adivasis have surged by six to eight times in the last five years. From nine-year-old Indra Meghwal, who was killed in school for drinking water, to the rape, murder and forced cremation of Manisha Valmiki in Hathras, attackers with powerful political connections have escaped unpunished. The BJP regime, which unleashes brutal repression on every form of opposition, remained a silent spectator even when casteist groups opposing the UGC Regulations have targeted PM Modi using casteist slogans. Meanwhile, those demanding the Rohith Act for over a decade have repeatedly faced lathis, jail and even bullets. From the uncritical teaching of the Manusmriti in DU to the promotion of unscientific, casteist ideas in the name of Indian Knowledge Systems, the demand for the Rohith Act is a call against impunity to caste supremacist ideas.

Build People’s Struggle to Annihilate Caste

When the RSS BJP regime earlier tried to dilute the SC/ST Atrocities Act, the blood of 13 Dalit martyrs killed during the historic 2 April 2018 Bharat Bandh forced the Supreme Court to put a stay on the anti-people amendment. Today, we see corporate-backed parties such as Congress hesitating to break their silence, while so-called Social Justice parties such as the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party have come out in opposition to the UGC Regulations for electoral calculations. Any official body will only work when people on the streets demand accountability. Only an uncompromising anti-caste movement built on the streets can enforce a stronger anti-discrimination mechanism in universities like the Rohith Act.

The nation-wide student movement after the Supreme Court’s stay on UGC Equity Regulations has been inspiring. While we continue to hear news of Student Suicides and Drop Outs, where the majority belong to marginalized sections (including JNU), it is inspiring to see thousands of students have faced barricades, lathis and arrests in defense of Social Justice, from JNU to DU, BHU, AU, PU etc. JNU has historically shown the way by setting a model for Equal Education For All, be it through implementing Deprivation Points (which was recommended for other institutes by the Thorat Committee on caste in education) or the GSCASH (which was recommended for every university or worplace by the Justice Verma Committee on sexual harassment. Beyond symbolic struggles, let us contribute towards this all-India student upsurge with our concrete demands.

COLLECTIVE demands: