He killed himself in his college library, unable to bear the insults and taunts. The suicide note recovered from his coat pocket charged his Head of the Department (HOD) with deliberately failing him and threatening to fail him over and over. Seven months later, a three-member group of senior professors re-evaluated his answer sheet and found that he had in fact passed the test.
Medical student Jaspreet Singh, a Dalit by birth, wanted nothing more than to become a doctor. Tragically, he fulfilled his ambition posthumously. A year later, his young sister, a student of Bachelor of Computer Application, also committed suicide, heartbroken at the injustice done to her brother.
Shocking details about the January 2008 suicide of the Chandigarh-based student have emerged following recent investigations by Insight Foundation, a Dalit-Adivasi student group that has compiled a list of 18 suicides by Dalit students studying in reputed institutions of higher education across India in the past four years.
The Foundation has also uploaded two documentaries onto YouTube, titled “The death of merit” — one on Jaspreet and the other on Bal Mukund, a Dalit student from Uttar Pradesh, who studied at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and committed suicide in March 2010.
Jaspreet was in the final year at the Government Medical College in Chandigarh. He was an excellent student throughout, and had never failed in any subject until he reached the fifth and final year.
Beginning of ordeal
This is when his ordeal began. His HOD told him that he might have entered medical college using his Scheduled Caste certificate but he would not go out with a degree. The professor failed him in Community Medicine, a crucial subject, and told him, according to the suicide note, that he will not let him pass.
Jaspreet had set his heart on a MD degree from the prestigious Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh. The threat cut short that dream.
Jaspreet's father, Charan Singh, told The Hindu: “I have no reason to live anymore. What more evidence do they want?”
Indeed, the evidence is clinching in this case. Jaspreet's suicide note; a certificate affirming Jaspreet's handwriting from the Directorate of Forensic Science, Ministry of Home Affairs, Shimla; testimonies from Jaspreet's friends; and finally, the re-evaluation of the answer sheet by a three member body of doctors from PGI, Chandigarh.
All three doctors, Rajesh Kumar, Amarjeet Singh and Arun Kumar Aggrawal, specialised in Community Medicine – the subject in which Jaspreet was failed. Yet till date, no action has been taken against the guilty HOD or the college.
In Bal Mukund's case, the AIIMS authorities seized on the fact that there was no suicide note. Their version was that Bal Mukund, who had attempted suicide once earlier, killed himself in depression.
But Bal Mukund's parents plaintively ask: “Who and what drove him to depression? He had repeatedly told us that he was harassed because of his caste. He was about to change his name. He also wanted to settle abroad to escape the humiliation of being born a Dalit.”
Keywords: Jaspreet Singh, Dalit suicides
Comments:
The savage masquerading as highly educated HOD should be immediate arrested for causing the death of a scholar solely for being a Dalit and the officials of law enforcement agencies also be arraigned as accessories after the crimes. But can we expect this in India?
This is not the case of only 2 students, lacs and thousands of students face the same day in and day out. While most bear the insults grudgingly, some who raise the voice gets harassed even more. The worst sufferers are students who do academically well and they are the prime targets of teachers as well as fellow students (not true for all cases though). There are huge hue and cry whenever the issue of reservation crops up and but unfortunately neither the media nor the society never dares to take such instances up. I am afraid such attitude will be a big hindrance in formulation of an inclusive society.
In the current case, the guilty professor must be punished and a suitable example should be set. If the institute doesn't take action, the pro-active judiciary of our country should take sou-motto cognizance of such serious matters too.
The HOD should be hanged till death so that in future such incidences wont occur. The caste system in india is responsible for this act but none of the so called civil society members fast unto death against the evil hindu caste system.They will never do so because they are the beneficiaries of this caste system hence they wont do anything against this.But society is moving very rapidly there are lots of under currents going on in the society. How can anybody neglect this..The 21st century is of Ambedkarites worldwide. The big revolution is taking place worldwide under the ideology of Dr Ambedkar.
Why people behave like this with the Dealit? Dalits don't want anything from them and the reservation is given by the respected Dr. Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar who made the samvidhan of India and in India every one either he/she is from SC and ST or not from the same follow that rule and regulations. Everyone has the right to live with liberty and peacefully. People who belong from SC or ST need the reservation because still in India only 5-6% Dalits are litrates and with job.
A highly vicious act by an HOD of a medical college. who in a dogma of caste and oppression of minority put an end to the life of a meritorious student. it is a matter of serious concern that how people are still conservative in nature. This dogmatic approach could also be traced in our pre independence history where our main political leadership under the banner of INC does not gave due attention to the social transformation of society. This was also the reason for the detachment of leaders for social justice from the INC(Ambedkar and Periyar].After the independece also no significant steps were taken to do away with this caste system.This act shows how little progress we have made in our social sphere..
Coming from a prestigious engineering college which follows the government mandated reservation quotas I find it shocking that such incidents take place behind the facade of civilized professors. I admit that among students its a tendency to discuss their all India ranks which makes everyone conscious of the caste of their peers. But the torture inflicted upon by those who were there to act as guiding light is barbaric. They deserve the harshest punishment for it.
Shame on mentality of a Professor that has taken away a life of a brilliant student who has never failed. I am shcked and such people are curse to society and they should be subject to socially boycott and legally penalized for their act.
I wish to state a few points of necessity to root out this evil of casteism:- 1) The caste should be treated a private matter and like ballot should be kept secret by authorities to whom it is disclosed for any purpose. 2) Because casteism cannot be rooted out without doing away with notions and stereotypes associated with castes, sustained effort should be put to dislodge from people's minds age old notions of superiority and inferiority, 3) The reservations should be given to economically and politically disadvantaged groups rather than vote banks, and assessment of their situation(economic) should be done periodically to ascertain the need of continuing reservations to that family.In that matter reservations can be gradually phased out with attaining their objective. 4) The 'sant samaj' should come forward to give examples and references from scriptures against this kind of behaviour.
In the end it will be a platitude if I say that any civilised person would be shocked to hear such instances in the current 'Age of Shining India'.
Harrassment cases like this are innumerable -- the student will be afraid that the majority will go against him by blaming him, by pointing at some of his weakness rather than acknowledging the fact that the student is being harrassed because of his community.
In this case if the Hindu says the HOD made that comment, then he must have made it......and he must be punished sufficiently for his crime,whether the student is a dalit or not. But from personal experience, being a medical undergraduate, i can say this much that failing a subject in final year MBBS is not that infrequent an event...i have known my friend to fail in subjects that no one expected them to fail, and in which, had a probe been conducted, he most surely would have passed. Also final year stdents are failed routinely for there are less seats in interneship than no of students appearing, yes thats the sad reality. I dont know whether such an issue would have come up in national media had the student not been a dalit, or had he not commited suicide, but i want to draw attention to the sad state of affairs at the Medical Schools in India.
This shows that we are a quasi-racist society.The roots of which are thousands of years strong.