The SC/ST Students Cell addresses academic and non-academic issues and complaints received from students belonging to the SC and ST communities. The Institute strives to ensure an environment where all communities can participate in academic and research activities without any sort of caste-based discrimination, without any sorts of other discrimination. In order to maintain such an atmosphere, the SC/ST Students Cell is also responsible for sensitizing the campus community and freeing up people from caste-biases: either conscious or sub-conscious.
The Cell aims to ensure that anti-discrimination laws in the context of caste are followed in letter and in spirit. The Institute is proud to implement reservation schemes as sanctioned by the Indian Constitution and as mandated by the Government.
In summary, the cell's objectives are broadly:
- Overall welfare of SC/ST students (for example, academics, scholarships), working together with other institute/department entities of IITB: increasing know-how/tips/guidelines about the processes/rules. Further, academic performance comparison w.r.t. the rest of the students batch-wise/year-wise is within the cell's purview.
- Sensitization of the campus community: all students, all staff-members, all faculty-members: efforts towards further enhancing inclusivity.
- Grievance and complaint handling: receiving and interacting with SC/ST students about matters related to caste-based discrimination.
How to file a caste-based discrimination complaint
The cell is where complaints by students about discrimination and/or harassment are to be brought up. We encourage students to feel free to write to the following email address. In addition to email, one can also consider filing a complaint using the link here (i.e. goo.gl/forms/F3BKMxkdGu28OGRz2) either anonymously or otherwise. The cell strives to ensure that anonymity is maintained throughout the investigation. It is a part of the procedure that once the complaint is filed, then within 48 hours, one or both conveners will set up a meeting with the student filing the complaint to explain the procedure of remedy (towards the grievance) and punishment (of the discriminator). This meeting is usually face-to-face and scheduled at the earliest after the complaint is filed.
The cell is currently convened by Prof. Rajendra P. Vedula, Department of Mechanical Engineering and co-convened by Prof. Sandip Saha, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Prof. Laxmeesha S., Department of Electrical Engineering. The core members of the cell are listed below. The "Brief History of the Cell" section mentions the past cell convenors.
The cell welcomes any suggestions and ideas from the students to improve upon.
Core Committee Members
Designation Name Email
Associate Dean AP Prof. Pratibha Sharma adean.ap@iitb.ac.in
Associate Dean SA Prof. Atul Srivastava adean.sa@iitb.ac.in
ARP Coordinator Prof. M. P. Gururajan guru.mp@iitb.ac.in
SC/ST Liason Officer Dr. S. G.Patil sgpatil@iitb.ac.in
SWC Incharge Ms. Anisha Mathews incharge.swc@iitb.ac.in
General Secretary (Hostel Affairs) Mr. Pratham Kapure gsecha@iitb.ac.in
Student Representative Mr. Mitul Wankede 20D070051@iitb.ac.in
Student Representative Ms. Vanguri Sahaja 210040167@iitb.ac.in
Student Representative Mr. Saikat Saha saikat.saha@iitb.ac.in
Member Prof. Ramesh Bairy ramesh@hss.iitb.ac.in
Member Prof. Pramod Kumar pramod_k@iitb.ac.in
Cell Faculty-Advisor Prof. Pinom Ering pinomering@civil.iitb.ac.in
Cell Co-convener Prof. Laxmeesha S. laxmeesha@ee.iitb.ac.in
Cell Co-convenor Prof. Sandip Saha sandip.saha@iitb.ac.in
Cell Convenor Prof. R.P. Vedula scstcell@iitb.ac.in
Department-Level Special Faculty Advisors
Department/Centre Faculty Advisor Email
Aerospace Engineering Prof. Rajkumar S. Pant rkpant@aero.iitb.ac.in
Biosciences and Bioengineering Prof. Swapnil R Shinde swapnilshinde@iitb.ac.in
Chemistry Prof. Rajarshi Chakrabarti rajarshi@chem.iitb.ac.in
Chemical Engineering Prof. Swati Bhattacharya swaticb@che.iitb.ac.in
Civil Engineering Prof. Pinom Ering pinomering@civil.iitb.ac.in
Computer Science and Engineering Prof. Bharat Adsul adsul@cse.iitb.ac.in
Electrical Engineering Prof. Sibiraj B. Pillai bsraj@ee.iitb.ac.in
Energy Science and Engineering Prof. Sandeep Kumar sandeep.kumar@iitb.ac.in
Humanities and Social Sciences Prof. Ramesh Bairy ramesh@hss.iitb.ac.in
Mathematics Prof. B.K. Das dasb@math.iitb.ac.in
Mechanical Engineering Prof. Nitesh Yelve nitesh.yelve@iitb.ac.in
Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science Prof. Indradev Samajdar indra@iitb.ac.in
Physics Prof. P.P. Singh ppsingh@phy.iitb.ac.in
IDC Prof. Alka Hingorani alka@iitb.ac.in
SOM Prof. Rajendra Sonar rm_sonar@iitb.ac.in
CTARA Prof. Parmeshwar Udmale udmale@iitb.ac.in
CSRE Prof. Alok Porwal head.csre@iitb.ac.in
CUSE Prof. Himanshu Burte h.burte@iitb.ac.in
Climate Studies Prof. Subimal Ghosh head.climate@iitb.ac.in
SysCon Prof. Srikant Sukumar srikant.sukumar@iitb.ac.in
DESE (Energy Science) Prof. Sandeep Kumar sandeep.kumar@iitb.ac
CRNTS Prof. Anil Kottantharayil head.crnts@iitb.ac.in
ET Prof. Sridhar Iyer sri@iitb.ac.in
IEOR Prof. Jayendran Venkateswaran head.ieor@iitb.ac.in
GEOS Prof. Satish Maurya smaurya@iitb.ac.in
CPS Prof. Malish C M malishcm@iitb.ac.in
ESED Prof. Amritanshu Shriwastav amritan@iitb.ac.in
Brief history of our cell
Since 1990s, the institute had a "Faculty Advisor" of SC/ST students, who dealt with various difficulties faced in the context of ST students. Past faculty-advisors include Prof. Pushpa Trivedi (HSS), B.L. Tembe (Chemistry), Prof. Kushal Deb (HSS). The SC/ST students cell was formed in 2017 with the convener as Prof. Arindam Chowdhury (Chemistry), followed by the terms of Profs. Bharat Adsul and Madhu Belur. Since 2023, the cell has three conveners. The past faculty-advisors and the past conveners have helped the cell its steady growth, and the cell has also benefited much from various other institute functionaries: both past and present. Being a students cell, the activities are initiated and driven by student volunteers: thanks to all our volunteers. We need such enthusiastic volunteers: please come forward to participate in the cell's activities, thank you.