Forced to tonsure heads for fee delay, allege Dalit students

GHAZIABAD - Thirty Dalit students of a privately-run institute in Ghaziabad, affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Technical University, were forced to tonsure their heads as the state government delayed payment of their fees, a student said Thursday. The institute has denied the allegations.

The incident took place last month at the engineering division of the Institute of Management Studies (IMS), where the victims, students of B.Tech, launched a protest earlier Thursday and were supported by their colleagues.

The students suffered the humiliation because the social welfare department of the state government delayed depositing their fees with the institute, said Shivesh, a student.

“Four students - Vipin Kumar Rana, Aswani Kumar, Dinesh Kumar and Manish Morya - have submitted their written complaints to the police and sought to register a case,” he said.

“The district magistrate and senior police officials visited the institute and assured us of initiating action against the erring staff of the institute,” he said.

He said when it was pointed out to the students that the state government has delayed payment of their fees, they paid the money from their own pocket, along with a late payment surcharge. Yet the institute insisted on tonsuring the students.

“Although each student paid a late fee of Rs.1,500 for the fault of the government, we were victimised before appearing in examination,” said one of the students.

The students said they were issued admit cards for the 7th semester examinations in December 2010 only after their heads were shaven off, he alleged.

“We kept mum in view of our examination that ended Jan 17. We also did not speak out in view of our internal assessment (accounting for 500 marks awarded by the institute) that ended Jan 21,” said a victim.

The institute closed for the vacation soon after the examination and reopened Thursday, when the students launched their agitation.

Shivesh alleged that institute director Prabal Chakraborty humiliated not only the students but also their parents. He called their parents and used abusive language.

When contacted, Chakraborty denied ill-treating the Dalit students or forcing them to get their heads tonsured. “We do not have a barber in the institute,” he said.

He said the delay in issue of admit cards to the students was in keeping with the rules. “We gave them receipts for the late fee which was charged from them,” he said.