Academicians say caste bias rampant, want Thorat panel report implemented

Against the backdrop of the death of Dalit JNU student J Muthukrishnan, several Dalit intellectuals Wednesday addressed a press conference condemning "growing instances of caste-based discrimination" in educational institutions and demanded that the government take steps to curb this trend. Several scholars lamented that the Thorat Committee recommendations on AIIMS – which was tabled in 2011 and spoke on how to deal with caste-based discrimination in educational institutions – had still not been implemented despite Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula committing suicide at the University of Hyderabad last year.