Ten years after the death of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit research scholar and leader of the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) at the Hyderabad Central University, student groups and social justice movements will commemorate what they describe as his “institutional murder” and “Shahadath” with a series of programmes at the university campus.
Rohith Vemula died by suicide on January 17, 2016. His death, widely described by his friends, family, and anti-caste movements as a consequence of entrenched caste discrimination in higher education, shook the country and triggered nationwide protests demanding accountability and structural reform.
A decade later, the demand for a nationwide Rohith Vemula Act to address caste-based discrimination against marginalised students in higher education remains unfulfilled.
On the tenth Rohith Shahadath Din, the Ambedkar Students’ Association at the University of Hyderabad, of which Rohith was a part, will unveil and launch the People’s Draft of the Rohith Act, prepared by the Karnataka team of the Rohith Act Campaign.
The programme will begin at 2:00 pm on Saturday with the handing over of the draft at Velivada, North Shopcom, followed by the formal release of the draft at 4:00 pm at the Savitribai Phule Auditorium, DST. A Mashaal Juloos will be held later in the night on the university campus, ASA leaders said. A public programme is scheduled for Saturday.
As part of the commemorations, Rohith’s mother, Radhika Vemula, will garland the Rohith Stupa at 2:00 pm at Velivada (North Shopcom).
Senior Ambedkarite leader and advocate V. Mrudula, Assistant Professor at the National Law University Dr. Ashna Singh, and lecturer Hulikunte Murthy will be present during the launch of the draft.
The public programme will be attended by Jignesh Mevani, Gujarat MLA and Congress leader; Dr. Visharadhan Maharaj, chief of the Dharma Samaj Party; anti-caste intellectual V. Geetha; lawyers Adv. V. Raghunath and Adv. Jai Bheema Rao; University of Hyderabad professor Prof. Bhangya Bhukya; Rameshbhai N. Solanki, father of Darshan Solanki, who died by suicide at IIT Bombay; and Abeda Salim Tadvi, mother of Dr. Payal Tadvi, a tribal Muslim doctor who died by suicide in 2019 following alleged casteist and Islamophobic harassment at a Mumbai medical college.
Cultural performances including Parai and Oppari by the Adavi Arts Collective will also be held.
“It has been a decade since our brother Rohith Vemula was institutionally murdered purely by virtue of his caste and the people responsible for it are roaming scot free. Join us in huge numbers to commemorate ten years of Rohith’s institutional murder and ten years of justice denied. Let us stand hand in hand in this politico legal struggle to secure justice to Rohith and his family,” said ASA HCU.
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