Open forum on caste woes held at Hyderabad Central University

Kukatpally: An open forum was held on Monday at Velivada, Hyderabad Central University, titled as 'Caste is not a rumour.' It was conducted as a part of the commemoration of death anniversary of Rohith Vemula, to be observed on January 17.

More than 50 students from different schools of the varsity participated in the forum and paid tributes to the students who ended their lives due to caste discriminations. Senthil Kumar, a PhD student from Physics, Pulyala Raju, an IMA student, Madari Venkatesh, a PhD student in ACRHEM, shared their real life experience on how caste became a channel of oppression in their life.

Iniyavan Banumathi, president, ASA unit of HCU, said that the "discrimination can only be defined by the students who are facing it and cannot be explained by others who are standing outside. The government should make the necessary policies and acts to stop such discriminations at the institutional level"

Parveda Chandra Kiran, the vice-president of ASA, said that "the objective of the programme was to share various kinds of oppressions faced by the students directly or indirectly."